Auction Aboriginal & Oceanic Works of Art Catalouge

Clifford Possum was one of the initial founders of the Western Desert Art Movement and the keeper of the mythologies associated with Mount Wedge (Kerrinyarra). They include the travels of possum, kangaroo, emu, snake, centipede, rock wallaby and a number of other ancestor beings related in song and ceremony as having passed through this place during the Dreamtime. This rare and important work, painted for Papunya Tula Artists in 1985, demonstrates Clifford Possum’s remarkable and decisively different vision in the representation of his Dreamings. The formal composition of his paintings set him apart from his contemporaries amongst other early Central and Western desert painters. In this visually arresting image he has depicted clan designs associated with Ulpulku, a site to the west of Mount Wedge. This is a rock wallaby site as seen by the tracks passing through the centre of the work. The roundels with U shapes on either side are campsites where ‘kungas’, young women, are seated. The necklets they wore during ceremonies are shown.