From Dull to Brilliant: The Aesthetics of Spiritual Power Among the Yolngu by H. Morphy

Aesthetics is concerned with how something appeals to the senses. This article focuses on the aesthetics of the Yolngu in northern Australia. “Only minor artists manage to say all they wish to and major artists frequently express things they did not intend to or were even unaware of,” Whitford states in the article. The Yolngu critical focus seems different than that of Western art criticism. The aesthetic properties do not have to be interpreted in order to have an impact. As far as public comments are concerned in Yolngu society, individual creativity is assigned no positive role. Although Yolngu individuals have aesthetic and creative capabilities, they never attribute these qualities in front of people. The reason attributed to why some people create the paintings and others don’t, is because of functional or practical reasons.
The distinctions between natural and cultural designs are irrelevant because of the constant change in their ancestral stories between inanimate objects and animate objects, between humans and animals. A Yolngu artist is guided by three objectives: to produce a correct design, to produce an Ancestrally powerful design, and to produce a painting that enhances or beautifies the object painted on. Paintings are usually smeared before they are displayed in public, and the only people that can see the painting in its full glory are those that create it. All others merely sneak glances at the paintings. It is believed that long, contemplative viewing is not the only way to appreciate a painting in Yolngu society. The Yolngu think that if a spiritually vulnerable person (young children, people suffering bereavement, seriously ill people, or sometimes women) sees a sacred painting, more sickness or death may result.