David Gulpilil AM (b. 1953), Mandalbingu actor and dancer, was born near Maningrida in Arnhem Land. He was sixteen when the British filmmaker Nicholas Roeg saw him dancing and cast him in Walkabout (1971). Subsequently, he appeared in Storm Boy (1976), Mad Dog Morgan (1976), The Last Wave (1977) and Crocodile Dundee (1986). For his performance in The Tracker (2002) he was named best actor at the Australian Film Institute Awards, the Inside Film Awards and the Film Critics’ Circle Awards. His later films include Rabbit Proof Fence (2002), The Proposition (2005), Australia (2008) and the Yolngu-language Ten Canoes (2006). Some years ago, Gulpilil returned to his ancestral lands to subsist through crocodile hunting and fishing. He shared the contradictions and difficulties of his existence between Yolngu and balanda (European) cultures in his one-man stage show, Gulpilil (2004), conceived by Neil Armfield and Stephen Page. In 2013 Gulpilil was awarded the Red Ochre Prize, Australia’s highest peer-assessed honour for Indigenous artists. Following Charlie’s Country (2013) he received the best actor award in the ‘certain regard’ category at Cannes. In 2019, when he appeared in the remake of Storm Boy, he won the NAIDOC lifetime achievement award.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
The series 'David Moore: From Face to Face' was acquired as a gift of the artist and with financial assistance from Timothy Fairfax AC and L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2001
© Lisa, Michael, Matthew and Joshua Moore
http://davidmoorephotography.com.au/
Tim Fairfax AC (53 portraits supported)
The Gordon Darling Foundation (36 portraits supported)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Michael Desmond discusses Fred Williams' portraits of friends, artist Clifton Pugh, David Aspden and writer Stephen Murray-Smith, and the stylistic connections between his portraits and landscapes.
The exhibition Depth of Field displays a selection of portrait photographs that reflect the strength and diversity of Australian achievement.
