Click to enlargeGreeny Purvis
1945 – 2010
- Region
- Eastern Desert
- Community
- Boundary Bore (Atneltyeye, Atneltye)
- Language group
- Anmatyerr (Anmatyerre) – Eastern Anmatyerre
Yam Seed Dreaming, 2005
synthetic polymer paint on linen
132 x 65cm
- Provenance
- Private Collection, Sydney, NSW
Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
- Artwork story
- Apart from being a very high ranking tribal elder in Utopia, Greeny Purvis is also the nephew of the late Emily Kngwarreye. His father, Alhalkere Jack, Lindsay Bird's mother and Emily were all blood brothers and sisters.
In Greeny's paintings the colours usually indicate different stages of the growth cycle of the Yam and its seed - before germinating, after germinating, when bearing fruit, and after it has borne fruit. His paintings appear to the uninitiated to be contemporary abstraction. They reflect, however, his unpretentious personality and seniority amongst artists of the region.