painting
- Museum number
- 2014,2007.1
- Title
- Object: James Cook - with the Declaration
- Description
-
Painting, acrylic on canvas. Blue background with depiction of a seated Captain James Cook in formal naval regalia. He is holding a legal document in his right hand and his left hand grasps a pencil. The legal document, the 'declaration', is painted as an extension of his naval uniform.
- Production date
- 2014 (Feb-March)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 101 centimetres (stretched onto a stretcher)
-
Width: 76 centimetres (stretched onto a stretcher)
- Curator's comments
- When Namatjiira was 14, he visited a replica of Cook's ship, Endeavour, at Fremantle, Western Australia on a school excursion which 'got me thinking about him'. Namatjira has noted that Aboriginal people would have interpreted seeing Cook as an 'ocean mamu' or ghost. Namatjira stated: 'This painting is important for me, because it was the beginning of our shared history, everything after Cook was between all of us'.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2015 23 Apr-2 Aug, London, BM, G35, Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisation
2018-2019, 29 Nov-4 Aug, London, BM, G91, Reimagining Captain Cook: Pacific Perspectives
- Acquisition date
- 2014
- Acquisition notes
- Painted specifically for the British Museum collection. Purchased from Marshall Arts in March 2014, ahead of the Indigenous Australia exhibition at the British Museum (2015). The exhibition was one outcome from a collaborative research project between the British Museum, the National Museum of Australia and the Australian National University.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- 2014,2007.1
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: 86-14 (arts centre reference)
