Guided by the great Shirley Purdie, daughter Madeline Purdie and granddaughter Tatum Rivers-Purdie have produced a suite of works that respond to the sites and stories of their Ancestral Lands. Knowledge pertaining to these subjects has been passed down over time, along with a distinct visual language, and a mastery of natural earth pigment. These paintings will hang alongside those drawn from the Estate of Madigan Thomas, Shirley’s mother, who fostered the unique East Kimberley art movement in the 1980s and 1990s alongside peers such as Rover Thomas and Queenie McKenzie. Together, they sought to define contemporary artmaking in the region, leaving a generous and deeply productive legacy to their community.
Major works by Madigan Thomas are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia.