Lot 111
Alec Mingelmanganu(circa 1905-1981)Wandjina, c.1980
2 December 2025, 19:30 AEDT
SydneyAU$10,000 - AU$15,000
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Alex Clark
Head of Sale, Senior Specialist
Merryn Schriever
Managing Director, Australia
Alec Mingelmanganu (circa 1905-1981)
Wandjina, c.1980
natural earth pigments on canvas
50.0 x 40.0cm (19 11/16 x 15 3/4in).
natural earth pigments on canvas
50.0 x 40.0cm (19 11/16 x 15 3/4in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Aboriginal Traditional Arts, Perth
Private collection, Tasmania, acquired from the above in 1980
This work is accompanied by original documentation from Aboriginal Traditional Arts, Perth
'Unlike most Wanjina images that seem to stare far into the distance, those painted by Alec Mingelmanganu appear to be the audience gazing at the viewer, rather than bong the subject of a painting. The close-set eyes lend a disconcerting air of questioning to the image. in turn, the broad hunched shoulders suggest that the Wanjina may not be all that comfortable with the world of humans.
Like most Wanjina painted in rock shelters, Alec's figures possess a sense of enigmatic magnitude, a massiveness that projects far beyond the edges of the canvas. Mingelmanganu's Wanjina paintings, executed in ochres on bark, were first exhibited publicly in mid 1975. As well as producing paintings for the (then) very limited market, Alec also engraved Wanjina figures, either singly or in groups, on tablets of stone or wood that had first been covered with a wash of ochre and gum.
In 1979 he was introduced to canvas as a more stable surface on which to paint, and in 1980 he had his first solo exhibition in Perth. Inspired by large non-Aboriginal paintings he had seen in Perth, Alec then embarked on painting a series of large canvases, completing at least four superb works before his death in 1981. The larger size offered him the opportunity to render his images of Wanjina on a scale similar to that found in the rock art of the Kimberley. The monumental strength and character in these works ensures that Alec Mingelmanganu will be recognised as the greatest of the contemporary Wanjina artists of the Kimberley.'
Kim Akerman in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2010, p.97