Thancoupie Sculpture with Bird Motifs and Figures
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Gloria Fletcher Thancoupie, Sculpture with Bird Motifs and Figures, earthenware, signed to base 'Thancoupie', height 28 cm. Provenance: The Estate of Professor Graeme W Clarke AO
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- Thancoupie - Thancoupie, born Gloria Fletcher in Napranam FNQ , is widely credited as the founder of the Indigenous ceramics movement in Australia.
Her early years were spent as a primary school teacher, and it was not until 1971, when in her mid 30's, that she moved from her remote home in the Cape, to the urban environment of East Sydney Technical College.
Here she began her training under the guidance of famed Australian ceramicist, Peter Rushforth and the great Japanese potter Shiga Shigeo.
Through the 1970?s she exhibit with the best artists, sculptors and craft-makers as a contemporary artist, rather than an Aboriginal Australian artist. In 1983 she visited Sao Paulo as Australia?s Cultural Commissioner to the 17th Biennale and her works subsequently toured Brazil and Mexico and later were included in the Portsmouth Festival in the UK.
She produced more than 15 solo exhibitions, in Australia and overseas, and exhibited at many of Australia's finest commercial galleries including The Hogarth Galleries in Sydney, Chapman Gallery in Canberra, and Gabrielle Pizzi and William Mora Galleries in Melbourne.
Important survey shows have been held at Manly Regional Gallery in Sydney, and Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Adelaide. In 2001, eighty works spanning her entire career were presented in a survey exhibition at the Brisbane City Gallery. She is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia as well as State art galleries and museums in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Queensland.
Thancoupie spent much of the last 30 years mentoring aspiring artists from communities in Far North Queensland, Arnhem Land, the desert and the Tiwi Islands as well as influencing Indigenous and non-Indigenous students enrolled in art and professional development courses.
She died in 2011 at Weipa Base Hospital FNQ after a long illness. - Earthenware - A basic ceramic material that is fired at a low temperature. Earthenware is the basis of almost all ancient, medieval, Middle Eastern and European painted ceramics. After firing, the colour is the colour of the clay when it is dug from the ground: buff, brown and red. It is not waterproof until glazed. Creamware is a type of earthenware covered with a transparent lead glaze. Majolica, faience and delft are also earthenware covered in an opaque white tin glaze.
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