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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Peter Elliott Collection
• Sale Date:
  30 Aug 2015 ~ 6pm - Part 1 (Lots 1 - 193)
  31 Aug 2015 ~ 11am - Part 2 (Lots 194 - 340)
  31 Aug 2015 ~ 2pm - Part 3 (Lots 341 - 511)
  01 Sep 2015 ~ 10.30am - Part 4 (Lots 512 - 754) and 2pm - Part 5 (Lots 755 - 1013)
• Lot #:
  208
• Lot Description:
  Wimmitji (Tjapangati)
  (circa 1925-2000)
  Artist’s Country (Wantjanmurra) (1992)
  synthetic polymer paint on canvas
  120 x 85 cm
  bears Warlayirti Artists cat. no. 520/92 verso
• Provenance:
  Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation, Western Australia; Hogarth Galleries, Sydney; This painting is sold with a Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation certificate.
• Exhibited:
  Aboriginal Art for Collectors, Desert Paintings, Hogarth Galleries Aboriginal Art Centre, Sydney, 9 March - 30 April 1993, cat. no. 12
• References:
  James Cowan, Balgo - New Directions, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1999, p.115 (illus.)
• Notes:
  An extraordinarily vivid and energetic image by one of the most venerably traditional artists at Balgo, Artist’s country (Wantjanmurra), 1992, is a symphony of subtle tonality based on the traditional ochre colours of red and yellow. Wimmitji painted the work about the time Michael Rae was leaving his post as the art coordinator at Warlayirti Artists: Rae had extended the chromatic possibilities available to Balgo artists by introducing a range of acrylic colours including pastels and non-traditional hues such as greens and blues. This painting shows traces of this influence, some areas picked out in greens and a minimal use of blue dotted lines; however its visual impact is derived from the contrast between the bold red matrix of journey lines connecting places or sites and the patchwork of dotted and scumbled paint. The visual dynamism of surface of the painting is enhanced by a tactility characteristic of Wimmitji’s method of applying paint. Compare this to another work painted around the same time, Kurra, 1992 in the Anthony and Beverly Knight Collection, illustrated in Healy. J. (ed.), Warlayirti: The Art of Balgo, Melbourne: RMIT Gallery, 2014, p.70, cat. 61. Artist’s country (Wantjanmurra), 1992, refers to country where Wimmitjii was born and raised and initiated into the law. It features rockholes and creeks; the tendril like form in the lower left, outlined in a red dotted line represents an area of hills, while the red spots on the right of the painting indicate burrows of the ground-dwelling marsupial, the bilby. Wimmitji lived a traditional life despite the fact that his lands lay adjacent to the Canning Stock Route (Wantjanmurra is east of the Route) and the social and cultural disruption that it was to bring. He was the last of his family group to take up residence at the old mission at Balgo in 1959 where he became a highly influential and respected leader. He assisted in the compilation of the Kukatja-English dictionary and was a main source of information for the anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt: a number of his narratives are published in their anthology of Aboriginal stories, The Speaking Land: Myth and Story in Aboriginal Australia, in 1989. Three years previously the Berndts had assisted in mounting the exhibition that announced the artists of Balgo to the world of art, Aboriginal Art from the Great Sandy Desert, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, which featured Wimmitji Tjapangati’s paintings. Wally Caruana
• Estimate:
  A$20,000 - 30,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

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