Fine Australian Bark Paintings-February 2022

Fine Australian Bark Paintings

FEBRUARY 2022

Fine Australian Bark Paintings FEBRUARY 2022

LAUNCH DAY

Saturday 5 February, 3pm–5pm

ON VIEW

Saturday 5 – Friday 18 February 2022 (11am–5pm) (Gallery closed Mondays & Tuesdays)

ADDRESS

409 Malvern Road, South Yarra VIC 3141

ONLINE

www.artvisory.com.au

ENQUIRIES

Paul Sumner 0412 337 827

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Australian Paintings on Bark We are entering a time where we are facing a significant re-calibration of how we view our exceptional Australian environment and our own place within it.

Not many countries still have an indigenous heart that beats. Nor one whose artistic expression extends from 3D ceremonial artefacts to painting as a way of expressing culture, place and meaning.

If we want to view Australian art as a continuum, then we need to address not only what is in the present, but also each and every stage that led us artistically to where we are now. This isn’t easy. After all no-one was recording art contemporaneously in this country prior to the last 200 years or so, remembering that we have a culture seeped in art that has existed here for 20–30 million years or more.

Unlike Western art that has been chronicled and recorded over centuries, Australian art has in the past been viewed as something that had its genesis in the 19th century with topographical recordings of “The Great Southern Land”. In the past some have insinuated that Australian art only really got going, so to speak, immediately before and after the federation of states around the turn of the 20th century. But we know this isn’t true. This was an outsiders perspective.

Today we are grappling with the spiritual identify of our country and, as we seek to come to terms with some uncomfortable aspects of history, it is only right to trawl through the embers of our artistic past and address what went wrong as far as understanding and appreciation was concerned, where we can.

Did it take wars fought by cultures previously disconnected to the sun-beaten deserts and majestic rocky outcrops of this land to spark a post-war art renaissance, or, had we our own unique and very special art movement hidden in plain sight?

The relatively recent global appreciation of Indigenous art is wonderful on many levels, but with the rise and fall of market interest that we have seen over the last 30 years or so, we haven’t layered our collecting appreciation, rather shifted from one period to another and so one asks the question: Why has there been such selected interest in Indigenous art created prior to the transformational era of legendary art teacher Dr Geoffrey Bardon and the Western painting movement that he nurtured at Papunya.

After all nothing comes from nothing as they say and the wonderful jewel like Papunya boards, that are now so highly prized, are directly and inextricably linked to bark paintings and rock paintings that have existed for millennia.

You only have to click on the online collections of many of our National institutions to see how many works on bark are not digitised in their collections and are not on public view. Whether intentional or not, this indicates the place in which this period of Australian art has been held. Some of the best collections of Australian paintings on bark are still held in museums rather than art galleries.

Australian bark painting is an important chapter in the growing story of the art of our land and one that needs to be re-linked back to the chain so to speak.

We welcome you to view this exhibition which is the most representative collection in this field that we have held and we hope that you enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed cataloguing and presenting them and we invite you to contemplate this unique and powerful art that speaks of belonging, country and cultural connection.

Paul Sumner Artvisory, February 2022

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ARTIST UNKNOWN (MANINGRIDA REGION, c.1960s)

Ceremonial design natural earth pigments on bark acquired with a second work by the same hand which is inscribed Navomi 85 x 68cm

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NARRITJIN MAYMURU (YOLGNU PEOPLE, EAST ARNHEM LAND, 1916–1981)

Untitled – Sea Creatures natural earth pigments on bark 74 x 19cm

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JOHN MAWURNDJUL (BORN 1951)

Mardayin at Kuruldul natural earth pigments on stringy bark Maningrida label to verso cat no 1741-04 122 x 53cm This painting refers to a site at Mumeka, which is an outstation in the artist’s clan estate in the Mann River region.

The Mardayin ceremony performance site is located on a large Billabong covered in waterlilies. This place is about 50k’s south of Maningrida, in Central North Arnhem Land.

The lengths of raark or cross-hatching which cover this painting represent components of body painting designs on young boys in the ceremony. However it is difficult to divide the design into parts. The painting as a whole refers to the Mardayin ceremony while its lengths of raark within it are burrkno, depicting the body of the ceremony itself.

John Mawurndjul was born in 1952 at Kubukkan in Arnhem land to an intensely artistic family. Success came in the early 1980’s for Mawurndjul with exhibitions in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne and by the end of the 1980s his works were being placed into many of our national institutional collections.

In August 2002 at the 19th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Mawurndjul is awarded the Telstra Bark Painting Award for his work Buluwana (2002), now held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

In 1988 at the fifth National Aboriginal Art Award (now the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards), Mawurndjul won the Rothmans Foundation Award for the best painting in traditional media for his work Ngalyod (1988) An award he was to win several times. Later the same year his work is included in the exhibition Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia opens at the Asia Society Galleries in New York.

In 2010 Mawurndjul is awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) “for service to the preservation of Indigenous culture as the foremost exponent of the rarrk visual art style”

From then on, Mawurndjul’s work is included in numerous International exhibitions at many of the world’s leading art institutions and his name is established as the most important artist of his generation and genre.

In 2018 The Museum of Contemporary Art staged the first leg of the their major and widely acclaimed retrospective: John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new, which was exhibited for three months at the MCA, before travelling to the Art Gallery of South Australia, where it was shown for a further three and a half months, as part of the Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art.

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THOMPSON YULIDJIRRI (1930–2009)

An Echidna – Ngarrbek natural earth pigments on bark old paper Oenpelli label with artists name and title to verso 25 x 38 cm Thompson Yulidjirri was born in 1930 and raised on Croker Island by the artist Paddy Compass Namatbara, who adopted Yulidjirri after his parent's death at a young age. After an attack

by Japanese planes during World War II, Yulidjirri and Namatbara moved to the coast of the Arafura Sea for safety, where he grew up in north east Arnhem Land.

In 1988, Yulidjirri travelled to Los Angeles for the opening of the exhibition Dreams and Life at Caz Gallery in West Hollywood.

Along with fellow artist Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra, Yulidjirri painted a two-sided piece of slate measuring over 7 feet tall and more than 5 feet wide. The work was purchased by American collector John W. Kluge, before being donated to the University of Virginia in 1997.

In 1997, Yulidjirri was invited to create an imitation rock shelter at the Australian Museum in Sydney. For many years, the work was the centrepiece of the museum's Indigenous Australian display.

From 1991-92, Yulidjirri painted five works on paper for the John W. Kluge Injalak Commission, including Ngurlmarrk – The Ubarr Ceremony.

COLLECTIONS

Australian Museum, Sydney Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia National Gallery of Australia National Gallery of Victoria National Museum of Australia

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PAUL NABULUMO NAMARINJMAK (MANINGRIDA, BORN 1971)

Nomorrorddo Spirit, circa 2000 natural earth pigments on bark Maningrida label with artists name, title and information to verso 161 x 56cm Paul Nabulumo is is the son of the highly acclaimed bark-painter Mick Kubarkku (1925 –2008). Nabulumo learned under his guidance, watching him paint on rock surfaces and bark paintings as a young man. The artist continues to paint the iconic imagery handed down from his father, including Ngalyod (Rainbow Serpent), mimih (rock country spirit), yawkyawk (female water spirits), Kubumi (waterholes) and djulng (Ancestral bones).

Nabulumo began exhibiting in 2000 the year this work was created and his work was included in the historic exhibition “Rark” at the Barge-house in London in 2007. His work was also selected for the 23rd and 28th Telstra National & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibitions and is held within various public collections, including that of the National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Victoria.

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DICK NGULEINGULEI MURRUMURRU (CIRCA 1920–1988)

Two Bandicoots – yok natural earth pigments on bark old paper Oenpelli label with artists name and title to verso 47 x 35 cm Ngulei-ngulei belonged to a group of artists who identified themselves as the 'Kunwinjku-Dangbon school', that included the famed rock and bark painter Lofty Bardayal Nadjemerrek (c.1926-2009), whose lands lie along the southern edges of Kunwinjku territory (Taylor 1996:80). On occasion they shared camps, either on their traditional lands or at the township of Oenpelli (now Gunbulanya). Both artists have appeared in several major exhibitions including Kunwinjku Bim: Western Arnhem Land paintings from the collection of the Aboriginal Arts Board at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984: Dreamings: The art of Aboriginal Australia at The Asia Society Galleries, New York, in 1988; and most recently in Old Masters: Australia's Great Bark Artists at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

Works by the artist are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, The National Gallery of Australia and many others.

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THOMPSON NGANJMIRRA (1954– )

Mimi Spirits and Namorodo Spirits natural earth pigments on bark old paper label with artists name and title to verso 34 x 20 cm

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LOFTY BARDAYAL NADJAMERREK A.O (1926–2009)

Kangaroo and Mimih natural earth pigments on bark artists name inscribed to verso 117 x 59cm PROVENANCE

Hogarth Galleries Sydney, 1989.

Rex Irwin Art Dealer Sydney Skin and Bone 2001, cat. no. 36 RELATED WORKS

A related work was sold Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 07/06/2011, Lot No. 131 and four fine works were sold for substantial prices from the Clive Evatt Collection of Aboriginal Bark Paintings and Sculpture, Bonhams Sydney, 24/11/2013.

Bardayal ‘Lofty’ Nadjamerrek’s is now one of the three most prized and collected Australian bark-painters, the other two being John Mawurndjul and Yirawala.

Solo exhibitions of Nadjamerrek’s work include Bardayal Lofty Nadjamerrek AO, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2011); as well as multiple selling exhibitions at Annandale galleries Sydney and Mossenson Galleries Melbourne.

Selected group exhibitions include Moon, Rainbow and Sugarbag: Two Artists of the Stone Country, Bardayal Nadjamerrek and Mick Kubarkku, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, touring (1995); Power of the Land – Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (1993–1994); The Inspired Dream, Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, touring

internationally (1988); Aboriginal Art of the Top End, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (1988); The Art of the First Australians, Kobe City Museum, Japan (1986); Kunwinjku Bim – Western Arnhem Land Paintings, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (1984); and Artists of Arnhem Land, Canberra School of Art, Australian National University, Canberra (1983).

Nadjamerrek’s work is held in a number of collections, including the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council, held by the National Museum of Australia, Canberra; Artbank, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Australian Museum, Sydney; Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

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DICK NGULEI-NGUELI MURRUMURRU (1920–1988)

Anteater natural earth pigments on bark 56 x 27cm PROVENANCE

Dorothy Bennett Art Centre, Darwin, NT Ngulei-ngulei belonged to a group of artists who identified themselves as the 'Kunwinjku-Dangbon school', that included the famed rock and bark painter Lofty Bardayal Nadjemerrek (c.1926-2009), whose lands lie along the southern edges of Kunwinjku territory (Taylor 1996:80). On occasion they shared camps, either on their traditional lands or at the township of Oenpelli (now Gunbulanya). Both artists have appeared in several major exhibitions including Kunwinjku Bim: Western Arnhem Land paintings from the collection of the Aboriginal Arts Board at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984: Dreamings: The art of Aboriginal Australia at The Asia Society Galleries, New York, in 1988; and most recently in Old Masters: Australia's Great Bark Artists at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

Works by the artist are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, The National Gallery of Australia and many others.

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ARTIST UNKNOWN (1960s)

Untitled – Long-necked turtle natural earth pigments on stringy bark 79 x 54cm

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JACOB NAYINGGUL (c.1940–2012)

Goanna and Eggs natural earth pigments on bark old paper label with artists name to verso 53 x 28 cm

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ARTIST UNKNOWN (WEST ARNHEM LAND, c.1950s)

Untitled – Wallaby, and a water-bird with a dilly bag and other tools natural earth pigments on bark 54.5 x 37cm With paper label to verso: “Derek on the theory that every new Australian Should have a piece of his country of choice I send this happy kangaroo onto you to enjoy. I just recently purchased it from a private collector who had collected it in Australia in the 1950s, so by aboriginal standards this is a genuine antiquity, wish it were in better condition – but enjoy it with England relations and all. Best wishes aloha.

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Sydney Given to previous owner by a Mr David Fabes in 1998

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JACK BEIMUNUMBI (MANINGRIDA, 1935–1986)

Ceremonial design Natural earth pigments on bark Maningrida Arts label with artists name and title to verso 74 x 51cm A work by this artist sometimes referred to as Jacky Baimunungbi is in the National Museum Canberra and a Lorrkon by him is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. Several works by the artist were included in the Thomas Vroom collection. See Sotheby's, Aboriginal Art – Thomas Vroom Collection, London, 10/06/2015, Lot No. 14 and lot 23 and lot 30.

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ARTIST UNKNOWN (CROKER ISLAND, c.1950/60)

Untitled – Two Barramundi natural earth pigments on bark 42 x 60cm

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JAMBALULA (CROKER ISLAND, c.1908–c.1972)

Crab Natural earth pigments on bark Artists name written to verso 19.5 x 37.5cm Jambulula was one of the last of his people that knew fragments of an old ceremony, no longer performed. He had carried on the ancient designs of his people illustrating the Yiwaidja seaway song cycle that was taught to him by his father.

For a related work see Sotheby’s Aboriginal Art June 26/27 2000 Lot 211. Two more were sold from the Sandra Le Brun Holmes collection c. 1960. Mossgreen, Australian Indigenous and Oceanic Art, 21 July 2015 lots 144 and 145.

Jambalula was also known as Jimmy and Timmy on Croker Island. A work by the artist is in the National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

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DICK NGULEINGULEI MURRUMURRU (OENPELLI, c.1920–1988)

Rock Goannas natural earth pigments on bark old paper label with artists name and title to verso 90 x 34cm Nguleingulei belonged to a group of artists who identified themselves as the 'Kunwinjku-Dangbon school', that included the famed rock and bark painter Lofty Bardayal Nadjemerrek (c.1926-2009), whose lands lie along the southern edges of Kunwinjku territory (Taylor 1996:80). On occasion they shared camps, either on their traditional lands or at the township of Oenpelli (now Gunbulanya). Both artists have appeared in several major exhibitions including Kunwinjku Bim: Western Arnhem Land paintings from the collection of the Aboriginal Arts Board at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984: Dreamings: The art of Aboriginal Australia at The Asia Society Galleries, New York, in 1988; and most recently in Old Masters: Australia's Great Bark Artists at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, Works by the artist are held in the collections of the National gallery of Victoria, The National Gallery of Australia and many others.

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ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE MILPURRURRU (RAMINGINING, 1934–1998)

Long necked turtle’s sea snakes and waterbirds surrounded by water-plants natural earth pigments on bark 130 x 50cm PROVENANCE

Professor Gordon H Packham Collection of Aboriginal Art. Gordon Packham, University of Sydney, made a substantial contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the geology of New South Wales. He assembled this collection over more than sixty year’s and it is reflective of the deep connection he had with Australia's natural landscape as a geologist.

George Milpurrurru (1934-1998), was one of the most significant Australian bark painters of the twentieth century and in 1979 he and David Malangi became the first indigenous artists to exhibit at the Biennale of Sydney. He was one of the senior contributing artists to the Aboriginal Memorial, first officially shown in 1988. After that he began to paint on canvas and paper. He was the first living Aboriginal artist to be honoured with an individual show – at the National Gallery of Australia in 1993.

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BURRUNDAY (c.1914–DECEASED)

Morning star pole, figure, totems, c.1964 natural earth pigments on bark inscribed to the reverse Bunandal 80cm high, 50cm wide PROVENANCE

The Eudald Serra Collection The Spanish sculptor Eudald Serra (1911-2002) met Augusto Panyella (1921-1999), director of the Ethnology Museum of Barcelona and chemist/businessman and Alberto Folch (18921984) in the 1940s and it was through this association that his interest in Indigenous arts was formed.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Serra, Folch and Panyella travelled widely searching out rare artefacts for the Ethnology Museum of Barcelona and for their own private collections.

Folch and Serra took two trips to Australia when Serra collected a number of bark paintings, including this significant work.

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IVAN NAMIRRKKI (MANINGRIDA, BORN 1961)

Goanna natural earth pigments on bark artists name in chalk to verso 83 x 28cm PROVENANCE

From the R.C. Brictson Museum collection.

Exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Man, as well as other venues.

Addressed directly by R.C. Brictson in his lecture circuit.

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ARTIST UNKNOWN (GROOTE EYLANDT)

Untitled – Star ceremony with figures, c.1970s natural earth pigments on bark 47 x 110cm

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ARTIST UNKNOWN (GROOTE EYLANDT, c.1960s)

Figures and ceremonial ground natural earth pigments on bark 26 x 38.5cm PROVENANCE

Private collection USA

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ARTIST UNKNOWN (GROOTE EYLANDT, c.1960s)

Untitled – Barracuda natural earth pigments on bark 25 x 45cm

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MARIE ROSE TIPUNGWUTI (TIWI ISLANDS)

Untitled natural earth pigments on bark artist’s name to verso 43 x 101cm

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LENA KURINIYA (MANINGRIDA, 1929–2003)

LENA KURINIYA (MANINGRIDA, 1929–2003)

LENA KURINIYA (MANINGRIDA, 1929–2003)

Untitled – Mimih Spirits

Mimih

Mimih

natural earth pigments on bark 75 X 32cm

natural earth pigments on bark Maningrida Arts label with artist's name to verso 42 x 19cm

natural earth pigments on bark Maningrida Arts label with artist's name to verso 42 x 20cm

Lena Kuriniya was the wife of renowned bark painter and ceremonial law elder Crusoe (Caruso) Kuningbal (c.1922–1984)

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NYAPANYAPA YUNUPINGU, YIRRKALA, (1945-2021)

Untitled – Sea Creatures natural earth pigments on bark 54 x 21.5cm PROVENANCE

Nomad Art, Parap, Northern Territory, via Virginia Wilson Art Advisor, Sydney.

Yunupingu was a Yolŋu woman of the Gumatj clan and was born in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, in 1945. She was the daughter of Yolŋu artist and cultural leader Munggurrawuy Yunupingu (c.1905–1979).

Growing up, Yunupingu worked on the mission with her sisters, herding dairy cattle and goats. She learned to paint by watching her father's painting process.

She had her first solo exhibition of bark paintings in 2008 at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Her work has been exhibited at the Biennale of Sydney in 2012 and 2016.

In 2008, Yunupingu won the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Prize at the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards with a piece that combined painting on eucalyptus bark with video to narrate a biographic event in which she was gored by a buffalo in 1975. Her paintings of being gored by a buffalo were the inspiration and backdrop for Nyapanyapa, a dance choreographed by Stephen Page for Bangarra Dance Theatre which toured the United States.

In 2017, her abstract painting Lines was awarded the bark painting prize at the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. The work was subsequently acquired by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), in Darwin.

She was selected as one of the featured artists for the 2020 Australia-wide Know My Name initiative of the National Gallery of Australia.

Starting on 23 May 2020 and running until 25 October 2020, a comprehensive solo exhibition of Yunupingu's work, the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu, was mounted at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. The exhibition featured more than 60 works, and was the first solo exhibition at MAGNT to feature work by an Aboriginal Australian artist.

In 2021, Yunupingu won the Wynne Prize for Garak – Night Sky, and the National Gallery of Australia purchased two of her works for inclusion in Part Two of the Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now exhibition. Yunupingu died in Yirrkala on 20 October 2021.

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NAMARALDI (OENPELLI)

Mimih Rain Dance natural earth pigments on bark old paper label with artists name and title to verso 29 x 63cm

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