Barbara Weir

Artist: Barbara Weir 
Language group: Anmatyerre and Alyawarr
Country: Atwengerrp 
Area: Utopia Region, Central Australia
Born: 1945 
Dec: 2023

Barbara Weir was one of Australia’s leading artists and her artworks have been collected and exhibited around the world for three decades. Her journey was one of extraordinary courage and fortitude, beginning when she was taken away as a young girl from her family as one of Australia's Stolen Generation.

The breakthrough in Barbara’s career came with an overseas visit to Paris and Switzerland in 1996, where at the request of a European gallery she was commissioned to create a collection of works for exhibition. Her work created during that time was overwhelmingly popular with local collectors and the collection was a sell out. With confidence riding high, she grew in great demand, later having successful exhibitions in Australia, across Europe, Japan, United States, Mexico and Fiji.

Later in 1996, after the death of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Barbara concentrated on developing her skill and style, particularly of her Grass Seed paintings which became her most collectable works. Inspired by a small grass found in Utopia called Lyaw, these paintings consist of a series of small brush strokes that overlap and weave to create a swaying effect like that of native grass. 

After surviving a stroke on an international trip in the early 00's, Barbara later kept her travels within Australia, producing work for a constant stream of exhibitions. Always challenging herself, she enjoyed nothing more than experimenting with new mediums and patterns, continually seeking new ways to illustrate her Aboriginal heritage.

In addition to Grass Seed, her most notable works are her 'My Mother's Country' dot paintings, and paintings she called her 'sun paintings', mapping out in exquisite detail the land formations and ceremonial designs of Atnwengerrp country in the Utopia region.

Her mother's country and all it encompassed was singularly important to Barbara given that her father was an Irish stationowner and she did not have a traditional country passed down from her father's side.

Her mother was Minnie Pwerle who started painting well into her late 80's, due to Barbara's encouragement, and became one of Australia's most sought after artists.

Barbara Weir’s work is represented in numerous private collections in Australia and overseas. Her work is in the public collections of Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Galley of Queensland, AMP and the Macquarie Bank Collections. She was also one of the five featured artists in the Australian Tourist Commissions multi-million dollar overseas television campaign.