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• Auction House:
  Deutscher and Hackett
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian Aboriginal Art
• Sale Date:
  17 Mar 2021 ~ 7pm (AEDT)
• Lot #:
  13
• Lot Description:
  Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford
  (c.1922 – 2007)
  Thoowoonggoonarrin, 2000
  natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on linen
  122.0 x 135.0 cm
  signed with initials verso: PB; bears inscription verso: Jirrawun Arts cat. PB 8 2000.91
• Provenance:
  Jirrawun Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia; Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney; Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 2000; Thence by descent; Private collection, Victoria
• Exhibited:
  "My Mother's Country, My Father's Country: New Paintings by Paddy Bedford", Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney, 12 September – 8 October 2000
• References:
  Storer, R., "Paddy Bedford", Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, pp. 43 (illus.), 149 (illus.)
• Notes:
  In his eulogy to Paddy Bedford, Sir William Deane recalled him as a man of 'great dignity and spiritual strength – a much loved senior Elder and lawman who late in the story of his life discovered a rare artistic genius that resulted in him being recognised as one of the great painters of our continent’.1 Nyunkuny, commonly known by his nickname 'Kuwumji' and by his 'gardiya' name Paddy Bedford, was a Gija lawman of Jawalyi skin. Born at Bedford Downs Station in the East Kimberley in 1922, he was named by and after the infamous Paddy Quilty, owner of the station, his surname coming from Bedford Downs, where he had worked as a stockman in his youth. When Aboriginal pastoral workers were finally awarded equal wages in 1969, Indigenous stockmen were unceremoniously expelled from cattle stations across the Kimberleys. From this time, Bedford lived between Nine Mile camp at Wyndham and Turkey Creek Mission settlement, which was to become the home of the first great generation of East Kimberley artists in the early 1980s. According to Tony Oliver (who was instrumental in Bedford's career and the development of Jirrawun Aboriginal Art Corporation), Bedford was close friends with Paddy Jaminji, Hector Jandany and Rover Thomas, whose canvases he helped to prepare and whose progress he quietly observed. It was only after these pioneers of the Kimberley movement died however, that Bedford took on the responsibility of painting ceremonial boards. Bedford painted his first stories on board in 1997 and within several years acquired a reputation for pushing new boundaries with his famously fluent 'walking line'. His work was also hailed as that of a 'new' Rover Thomas, even though he was born a few years before him. Steeped in traditional law and the "Ngarranggarrni "(Gija dreaming), he drew on a seemingly endless source of traditional lore and knowledge of significant sites. His paintings combine important family Dreamings such as "Garnanganyjen" (Emu), "Birnkirrbal "(Bush Turkey) and "Ngayilanji "(White Cockatoo), with the physical world of roads, rivers, traditional life, stock camp life, stock yards and country visited while mustering. "Thoowoonggoonarrin "is characteristic of Bedford's move away from the more familiar style of the earlier East Kimberley painters to his own distinctive representations of country. His use of colour evolved with the elimination of the ochre palette and introduction of starkly contrasting black and white, where the forms become dominant alongside the interplay between the positive and negative space. In 2006, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Australian, and indeed, world culture, Bedford was honoured by a major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. He was also one of the handful of Aboriginal artists commissioned to contribute to the permanent collection of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. Since his death in 2007 at the age of 85, Bedford’s paintings have continued to be keenly sought after as the significance and quality of his astonishing body of work becomes increasingly evident. 1. 'Eulogy for Old Man’, in "Paddy Bedford; Bury My Heart at Bow River", exhibition catalogue, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, 2009, p. 14 CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE
• Estimate:
  A$35,000 - 45,000
• 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.