Lin Onus, a Yorta Yorta artist of Aboriginal and Scottish descent, represents a singular voice in Australia’s cultural life. Esteemed for his wit, talent and panache, Onus’s work is a negotiation of cultural identity, using both Aboriginal and Western techniques to unsettle easy categorisation.

‘Blue Reflection with Frogs Heads (Black)’ is a unique screenprint, the fruit of a collaboration between Onus and master printmaker Shaike Snir. The two met at Port Jackson Press Australia in 1989 and over the subsequent years built an intimate rapport, spending their lunch breaks producing experimental works like this.

‘Blue Reflection with Frogs Heads (Black)’ compels our attention. Across a black ground, a pigment symbolic of Onus’s identity, lie the reflection of trees on water, their tendrils punctuated by Onus’s totem animal, the frog. The presence of water too represents his ancestral country and spiritual home, the Barmah Forest along the Murray River, as well a conceptual inversion of the European panoramic landscape. Before ‘Blue Reflection with Frogs Heads (Black)’, we are compelled to look below the surface.

This screenprint is not just beautiful, it is culturally significant – a vestige of artistic collaboration, experimentation and Onus’s sensitive yet compelling eye. He was an artist whose vision was only matched by his activism, writing in 1990 that he hoped to be remembered as a “bridge between cultures, technology and ideas”. With representation across public collections and an OBE, it is undoubtable that he has.

For collectors of important Australian, Aboriginal and contemporary art, ‘Blue Reflection with Frogs Heads (Black)’ is a unique opportunity. It has an unbroken chain of ownership and is accompanied by a Letter of Provenance.

Lin ONUS (1948 - 1996)
'Blue Reflection with Frogs Heads (Black)' 1994
screenprint on paper
Edition of 1
Image Size: 80 x 120 cm
Dimensions: 75 x 114 cm
Signed: Unsigned.
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Unique experimental print produced by Lin Onus. Excellent provenance, direct from the master printmaker Shaike Snir at Port Jackson Press, Australia.

Similar unique print in the collection of the NGA, Blue reflection with frogs heads, Accession Number: 2019.753

Condition: Very Good: Describes a work of art's image as Excellent, but may show some small signs of surrounding wear to paper or frame. Minor flecks of missing pigment, likely part of the printmaking process. Pin holes in margins on both top corners, reflective of being displayed.

(c) Lin Onus / Copyright Agency