Lot 23
Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri(circa 1929-1984)Camp Scene Near Napperby, 1973
2 December 2025, 18:00 AEDT
SydneyAU$7,000 - AU$9,000
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Alex Clark
Head of Sale, Senior Specialist
Merryn Schriever
Managing Director, Australia
Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri (circa 1929-1984)
Camp Scene Near Napperby, 1973
inscribed verso: 'TL730-628'
synthetic polymer powder paint on board
53.5 x 46.0cm (21 1/16 x 18 1/8in).
inscribed verso: 'TL730-628'
synthetic polymer powder paint on board
53.5 x 46.0cm (21 1/16 x 18 1/8in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
Private collection, acquired on 26 July 1973
Christie's, Melbourne, 27 November 2001, lot 57
The Collection of William Nuttall and Annette Reeves, Melbourne
Bonhams, Aboriginal Art from The Superannuation Fund of William Nuttall and Annette Reeves, Sydney, 28 May 2012, lot 28
The Sarick Collection, Canada
EXHIBITED
Blue Chip VII, The Collectors' Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 1 March - 2 April 2005
This is an intimate snapshot of the daily camp routine with a clear division of labour. The man on the left, armed with spears, spear-thrower and boomerangs, goes off to hunt. The woman on the right carries a digging stick on her shoulder and a coolamon or carrying dish to collect bush foods, such as the yams that appear as black forms on the right. Each is accompanied by a dog. The camp is defined by the black central circle, and the sets of icons depicting women sitting (the U shapes either side of a small circle) and the windbreaks (long arcs) that protect them. The tracks of a wallaby of kangaroo appear along the vertical axis.
Tim Leura painted a number of domestic scenes such as this in the early years of the Western Desert painting movement at Papunya. Several of these are illustrated in Geoffrey Bardon and James Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement. Please see An Old Person's Dreaming, 1978, illustrated on page 289, painting 231, Man and Woman's Dreaming - Family Story, 1978, on page 290, painting 232, and Yam Spirit Dreaming (version 5), 1972, on page 234, painting 264.
Wally Caruana