Important Australian Indigenous Art - 26 March 2024 | Melbourne
natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
62.0 x 38.5 cm (irregular)
Lot Details
Description
natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
62.0 x 38.5 cm (irregular)
Painted at Bathurst or Melville Islands, Northern Territory, c.1965
Private collection
Sotheby's, Melbourne, 22 - 23 November 1999, lot 406 (attributed to 'Artist Unknown')
The Kelton Collection, Santa Monica, USA
Private collection, Melbourne
Often commissioned to make Pukumani Poles for funeral ceremonies, Deaf Tommy Mungatopi was renowned for his fine attention to detail and inventive patterning. His signature style consists of a double set of webbed, slightly ovoid concentric circles, connected and infilled by delicately painted patterns of dots applied with the pwoja comb.1 As with the related works cited above, this painting on bark is an evocative interpretation of light reflecting off the coral reefs on the eastern side of Melville Island – a subject to which he returned many times.
1. Isaacs, J., Tiwi: Art/History/Culture, 2012, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, p. 142
CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE