Find Lots

• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Australian Indigenous & Oceanic Art
• Sale Date:
  22 Jul 2014 ~ 6.30pm (Part 1 - Lots 1 - 198)
  23 Jul 2014 ~ 2.30pm (Part 2 - Lots 199 - 331)
• Lot #:
  234
• Lot Description:
  Artists Unknown
  (western desert men's collaboration)
  Untitled (Tingari Dreaming) (1989)
  synthetic polymer paint on linen
  151 x 192 cm
• Provenance:
  Collected at Wiluna, Western Australia (1989); Private Collection Queensland
• Notes:
  While the exact identity of the artists who created this work is not known, its determined energy suggests that this is a collaborative work, produced by a group of ritually mature Western Desert men. The painting was purchased from a 'taller man' at the Western Australian township of Wiluna in 1989.1 The 'taller man' was among a group of approximately one hundred participants in travelling ceremonies, held in sequence of remote Aboriginal communities. The Tingari and Wati Kutjarra are dominant songlines known across the full extent of the Western Desert; binding people from distant lands as waltja (family) as well as providing continuity and meaning across a vast totemic landscape. The travels of the Tingari are particularly extensive and the network of sites, evident as the interlinked sets of concentric circles, used as the dominant compositional device in the current painting, is common to many Tingari paintings. The Tingari has been described as 'super-totemic tradition', which incorporates and overlays many local traditions.2 It involves the interaction of bands of Tingari men, women and initiates with other totemic ancestors, such as Kuninka (Western Quoll), Tjikamata (Echidna) and Wayurta (Brushtail Possum). The Tingari are believed to have established aspects of the Law through the ceremonies they performed, ceremonies that are recreated to this day as a means of educating novices.3 At another level, this painting can be understood as a 'birds-eye' view of a Tingari ceremony, in which the body paint of the participants is shown, fused together, to demonstrate the ceremonial participants' united intent. Large Tingari paintings, such as this commanding work, can arise from a collaborative process that is analogous to the preparation for the actual ceremonies the paintings represent. After having painted the ground on which the work is is to be created, one or more senior men set out the network of interlinked concentric circles, while singing the verses associated with that episode in the Tingari song-cycle. Having laid out the painting's compositional 'skeleton', other men join in, applying dots to the major roundels. Gradually younger men are incorporated into the process, while the volume and intensity of singing builds.4 It is evident from an examination of the surface of this work that several hands were employed laying down the pulsating bands of dots. Rather than diluting the intent, the variation in the size and strength of this dotting speaks of the work's creation as a performance of shared belief. Never still or visually stable, these large Tingari paintings are palpable depictions of the strength of the Dreaming, their restless energy demonstrating, like the ceremonies that they represent, the animation of the ancestral past into the present. Images of this work were circulated to several Western Desert art experts during the drafting this essay and while none could provide a definitive attribution, the legendarily mobile Kurltjunyintja Jacky Giles was mentioned more than once as a likely creator. The men of Warburton, and in particular Fred Ward were also considered as potential painters. There was consensus that the early date of this work, together with its visual dynamism made it an important visual manifestation of the Tingari cycle, and as such, a compelling contribution to contemporary Australian art. John Kean The author wishes to thank David Brooks, Dr. John Carty, Edwina Circuitt, and Dr. Darren Jorgensen for their assistance in cataloguing this work 1 David Brooks has suggested that the 'taller man' might have been John Malpantji Ward, who frequented Wiluna in the early 1990s. Ward was a major custodian of a Tingari site to the north of Patjarr. Nicknamed 'Tarzan', Brooks remembers Malpantji Ward as 'a very important law man and had an impressive presence', noting that Ward is not known as a painter. 2 Mike Smith, The Archaeology of Australia's Deserts, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 253 3 Fred Myers, Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art, Duke University Press, 2002, pp. 62-63 4 Based on the author's observation of the creation of comparable paintings by Pintupi artists at Papunya and its outstations (late 1970s), Kintore and Kiwirrkurra (mid 1980s).
• Estimate:
  A$7,000 - 10,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

  Can't see the realised price? Upgrade your subscription now!

• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.