Lot 13
Mawalan Marika(circa 1908-1967)Nativity Scene, c.1964
2 December 2025, 18:00 AEDT
SydneyAU$18,000 - AU$25,000
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Alex Clark
Head of Sale, Senior Specialist
Merryn Schriever
Managing Director, Australia
Mawalan Marika (circa 1908-1967)
Nativity Scene, c.1964
natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
109.5 x 33.5cm (43 1/8 x 13 3/16in).
natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
109.5 x 33.5cm (43 1/8 x 13 3/16in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Acquired from the artist by a missionary, Yirrkala, 1960s
thence by descent
Private collection
Sotheby's, Sydney, 25 November 2007, lot 92
Private collection, New South Wales
Sotheby's, Sydney, 18 October 2011, lot 82
The Sarick Collection, Canada
Mawalan Marika, a leader of the Rirratjingu clan when the Christian mission was established at Yirrkala in 1935, was an innovative artist who sought to comment on his experiences of contemporary life using the conventions of bark painting. In this extraordinary image of the Nativity, the baby Jesus in the manger is surrounded by animals, presumably sheep and a cow, under a variation on a traditional wet season shelter built on forked sticks. The other figures in the composition include the Virgin Mary, Joseph and three other figures, probably the three wise men offering gifts. The wise men are also depicted riding horses in the lower half of the painting and the star that guided them dominates the upper register.