MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Primary medium:
WOOD CARVING

William Ricketts was an Australian potter and sculptor who settled permanently in Mount Dandenong, Victoria, in 1934. He embraced Aboriginal spirituality and respect for the natural world  throughout his artworks.

From 1949 to 1960 he made frequent trips into Central Australia to live with Pitjantjatjara and Arrernte Aboriginal people, whose traditions and culture inspired his sculpture. He was not an Aboriginal by blood but considered himself adopted by the Pitjantjatjara nation. He left behind many of his central Australian works at Pitchi Ritchi near Alice Springs – a bird sanctuary run by his friend Leo Corbet – as he considered the landscape integral to these sculptures.

The main work of William Ricketts is the sculpture park that he named Potter's sanctuary, but which is now known as William Ricketts Sanctuary. In the 1960s the Victorian Government bought the Sanctuary from William Ricketts and made it a public park, where William Ricketts lived until his death in 1993. This breath taking park is still visited by many tourists to this day.

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