Bonhams 1793 : Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri (circa 1926-1998) Kangaroo Dreaming with One Cave, Waterhole and Two Playful Kangaroo Men

Kangaroo Dreaming with One Cave, Waterhole and Two Playful Kangaroo Men
bears artist's name 'jabaljari' [sic] on the reverse and artist's name, title and Stuart Art Centre consignment number 9036 on a Stuart Art Centre label on the reverse
synthetic polymer powder paint on board
70 x 39cm

Estimate:

AU$ 30,000 - 50,000
£19,000 - 32,000
US$ 29,000 - 49,000

Footnotes

PROVENANCE:
Painted at Papunya in 1971
Painting number 36 in consignment 9 to the Stuart Art Centre, Alice Springs
Private collection
Ebes Collection, Melbourne

LITERATURE:
Hank Ebes (ed.), Nangara: the australian aboriginal art exhibition from the Ebes collection, Melbourne: The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings, 1996, vol 1, p.42, cat. no.27; vol 2, cat. no.27 (illus.).
Hank Ebes (ed.), The Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Japan: The Yomiuri Shimbun, 2001, p.22 (illus.)., p.108
Geoffrey Bardon, and James Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press, 2004, painting 413 on p.442, Bardon's diagram (illus.).

EXHIBITED:
Nangara: the australian aboriginal art exhibition from the Ebes collection, Stichting Sint-jan, Brugge, Belgium, March 9 - June 23, 1996, cat. no.27
The Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art, Asahikawa, Japan, April 13 May 27, 2001; Tochigi Prefectual Museum of Fine Arts, Utsunomiya, Japan, July 15 September 2, 2001; Iwaki City Art Museum, Iwaki, Japan, November 10 - December 16, 2001, cat. no.7
Dreamtime - Aboriginal Art from the Ebes Collection, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj, Copenhagen, Denmark, February 11 - August 13, 2006

Geoffrey Bardon's original field notes documenting this early work by Pintupi master Mick Namarari are illustrated alongside this painting in Papunya: A Place Made after the Story. He identifies the elongated rectangular shape in the lower central register as a big cave, the 'U' shapes as Kangaroo Spirit Men and the paired chevrons their tracks.

When asked to comment on this work, respected Central Australian historian R.G. (Dick) Kimber was only prepared to advise that, 'The Two Kangaroo story is a special men's story and I am not at liberty to give more information than can be gleaned from the notes..... this is an excellent example of his early work.'

This painting is sold with the original Stuart Art Centre documentation