Born at Haasts Bluff in the mid ’50s ('ration time’), Barney Daniels received some European schooling at Mungana, a settlement about five miles (8 km) out of Alice Springs. He spent five years in Western Australia working as a stockman at Halls Creek station, then returned to his traditional country at Haasts Bluff and continued droving work on the government cattle station which had been established there, before starting to paint in the mid ’80s. He began on small boards, which he sold to the Centre for Aboriginal Artists. He paints Rainbow Snake, Blue Tongue Lizard, Bush Fire, Centipede, Witchetty Grub/Snake and Bush Tucker Dreamings. He describes himself as self-taught. He was one of the pioneers of the style of stippled brushwork backgrounds which is still distinctive of his canvases. He describes his language/tribe as Luritja/Pintupi, though his mother was an Anmatyerre woman from Napperby and his father Warlpiri. He was commissioned by the Australian Bicentennial Authority to paint furniture, including a desk and a TV set, for the touring 1988 Bicentennial exhibition, which also included a life-size sculpture of the artist, one of 20 Australians so represented. In recent years, he has sold mainly through the Gondwana Gallery and other Alice Springs outlets. When interviewed for this dictionary, he was living at Morris Soak in Alice Springs. Collections: Flinders University Art Museum, Langbeach Museum, California. Exhibitions: Gauguin Museum, Tahiti, Feb ’88, Tin Sheds, Oct ’88. Reference: Aboriginality , J. Isaacs (UQP, 1992)

Writers:

Johnson, Vivien Note: primary biographer

Date written:

1994

Last updated:

2011