Rover Thomas Joolama Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Rover Thomas Joolama Art Value Price Guide

Nov. 12, 2024
ROVER JOOLAMA THOMAS, UNTITLED, 1993
Est: $70,000 - $90,000
ROVER JOOLAMA THOMAS 1926-1998 UNTITLED, 1993 ochre on canvas 90 x 120 cm signed verso 'Rover' PROVENANCE Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, WA Cat No. AP 3746; S3981 William Mora Galleries, Melbourne Private Collection, Vic Accompanied by a faxed copy of the original certificate of authenticity from Waringarri Aboriginal Arts ©Rover Joolama Thomas / Copyright Agency, 2024 Rover Thomas lived a traditional bush life with his family at Well 33 until he moved, at 10 years of age, with his family to Billiluna Station, where he was initiated, after his mother's death. After working for a period as a jackeroo on the Canning Stock Route he became a fencing contractor in Wyndham and later worked as a stockman in the Northern Territory and the fringes of the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts. In his later years, he settled and began painting in the Warmun community at Turkey Creek. While Rover's artworks can generally be characterised as map-like depictions of country executed with natural earth pigments in a graphic Kimberley style, they generally carry historic and social connotations. In this emblematic work, he depicted the vast, usually dry, salt-lake system known as Lake Dora near Punmu, his birthplace. When good rains come, the area teems with wildlife and Desert Oaks, the largest beautiful shady trees in this desert region which dot the high-water line. This piece is a fine example of an Australian Aboriginal artwork.
Art Leven (formerly Cooee Art)
Aug. 25, 2024
THOMAS Rover (Joolama) (Aboriginal c.1926-1998), 'Lake Gregory,' 1995., Ochre Pigments with Archival Binder on Belgian Linen, 206x109
Est: $30,000 - $40,000
THOMAS, Rover (Joolama) (Aboriginal c.1926-1998) 'Lake Gregory,' 1995. Signed 'Rover' verso. Ochre Pigments with Archival Binder on Belgian Linen 206x109cm PROVENANCE: The artist; Neil McLeod, Melbourne (certificate of authenticity included); private collection, Sydney (acquired from the above with the assistance of Dr Peter Elliott in 1996)
Davidson Auctions
Mar. 26, 2024
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), TEXAS DOWNS COUNTRY - GOWARRI, 1989
Est: $35,000 - $45,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) (c.1926 - 1998) TEXAS DOWNS COUNTRY - GOWARRI, 1989 natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas 60.0 x 105.0 cm bears inscription verso: 1989 and cat. ABOP397 PROVENANCE Painted for Mary Macha in 1989 (code 29889) Private collection Lawsons, Sydney, 13 September 1994, lot 107 (as 'Gowarri') The Kelton Collection, Santa Monica, USA The Kelton Collection, Abell Auctions, Los Angeles, USA, 22 June 2023, lot 315 (as 'Gowarri Dreaming') Private collection, Perth This work is accompanied by a copy of the original cataloguing note from Mary Macha. © Rover Thomas/Copyright Agency 2024
Deutscher and Hackett
Mar. 05, 2024
Rover Thomas Joolama - Great Sandy Desert, 1995
Est: $35,000 - $45,000
This mysteriously restful and yet haunting image gives us a window into the artist's mindâs eye. In his true minimalist style, the Canning Stock Route, a heavy line bordered by white dots, surrounds and frames a richly vivid image of the Great Sandy Desert. Rover indicated that the sparse ethereal washed ground created in broad brushstrokes depicted sand patterns and changing lights in this vast desert region through which he travelled as a young man.
Cooee Art
Dec. 04, 2023
Rover Thomas Joolama, , Marumaru (Black One) 1996, Natural earth pigments on canvas
Est: $22,000 - $28,000
Rover Thomas Joolama Marumaru (Black One) 1996 Natural earth pigments on canvas
Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers
Nov. 08, 2023
Rover Joolama Thomas - Wati Kutjarra Area, 1995
Est: $40,000 - $60,000
Born in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia, Thomas spent his early life living a traditional life in the bush with his family. At the age of ten he moved to the Kimberley where he was initiated into tribal law.
Cooee Art
Nov. 08, 2023
Rover Joolama Thomas - Cyclone Tracy - Willy Willy, 1995
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
Acclaimed as a cultural leader and the seminal figure in establishing the East Kimberley School, Rover Thomas holds a primary place in the history of the Indigenous art movement.
Cooee Art
Nov. 08, 2023
Rover Joolama Thomas - Bullock Hide Story, 1995
Est: $50,000 - $70,000
Rover Thomas was born in 1926 at Gunawaggi, Well 33, on the Canning Stock Route in the Great Sandy Desert and belongs to the Julama skin group. His fathers (both his actual father and the man who helped âgrow him upâ) were Wangkjungka, and his mother Kukaja, adjacent language groups in the region of his birth. He began working as a stockman at 10 years of age and spent the following 40 years droving cattle. During this time, he travelled over vast tracts of interior landscape including several years in the Northern Territory, later returning to work again in Western Australia.
Cooee Art
Nov. 08, 2023
Rover Joolama Thomas - Mount House, 1983
Est: $40,000 - $60,000
Rover Thomas lived a traditional bush life with his family at Well 33 until he moved, at 10 years of age, with cattleman Wally Dowling to Bililuna Station and began working for a period as a jackeroo on the Canning Stock Route. He worked on several cattle stations situated on the fringes of the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts including Bow River Station where he was married for the first time, and later at Texas Downs, Old Lissadel and Mabel Downs adjacent to the Warmun community at Turkey Creek where he settled in his later years. The painting itself, illustrates Rover's extraordinary ability to dominate a picture plane with single elemental forms whilst conveying, beyond the picture's surface, his intimate knowledge of the vast landscape.
Cooee Art
Oct. 02, 2023
Rover Thomas Joolama, , Marumaru (Black One) 1996, Natural earth pigments on canvas
Est: $25,000 - $35,000
Rover Thomas Joolama Marumaru (Black One) 1996 Natural earth pigments on canvas
Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers
Jul. 31, 2023
Rover Thomas Joolama, , Marumaru (Black One) 1996, Natural earth pigments on canvas
Est: $35,000 - $45,000
Rover Thomas Joolama Marumaru (Black One) 1996 Natural earth pigments on canvas
Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers
Mar. 22, 2023
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), UNTITLED, C.1986
Est: $40,000 - $60,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) (c.1926 - 1998) UNTITLED, c.1986 natural earth pigments and natural binder on plywood 80.0 x 100.0 cm bears inscription verso: Rover Thomas. / Waringarri. Aboriginal. Arts / S-500 / P829 /AFJ bears inscription on label on frame: 17 PROVENANCE Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia Aboriginal Arts Australia Limited, Sydney Private collection, France, acquired from the above in June 1990 ESSAY Rover Thomas’s practice of rendering sites, stories and landscapes of the eastern Kimberley in a planar, map-like perspective was a radical innovation and one which created an entirely original mode of depicting the land, redefining the conceptual framework by which Aboriginal art was judged. This form of landscape painting, with the elements of each work referring to sites of ancestral or historical significance, and routes travelled by both the creator beings and the artist himself in his days as a drover on cattle stations in the region, became the basis of the style now recognised as the East Kimberley or Warmun School of Australian art. Rover Thomas moved to Turkey Creek (Warmun) in early 1975. A government reserve, Warmun had previously been a rations depot and apart from a post office had few other facilities or amenities. Here, Indigenous workers displaced from the cattle stations found a place of refuge and for Rover Thomas, Paddy Tjamatji and other artists, Warmun also provided the background for their creative output, as the place where the Kuirr Kuirr song cycle first emerged and where the ensuing art movement flourished. Painted for Waringarri Aboriginal Arts in Kununurra, Untitled, 1986 is characteristic of Rover’s early paintings where layers of traditional pigments affixed with natural resin binders are outlined by a tracery of white dots painted with huntite, a white chalky pigment used in ceremony and rock art. The work shows a planar view of landscape where lines indicate geological features, while at the same time recalling ancestral paths and delineating areas of country. Rover Thomas was widely recognised as a significant Australian artist by the late 1980s, participating in group exhibitions throughout Australia every year from 1987 until his death in 1998. In 1990 he was awarded the John McCaughey Prize and was one of the first two Aboriginal artists (together with Trevor Nickolls), to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. In his tribute to Rover Thomas, Kim Akerman noted that, ‘as an artist he took the experiences of a rich and varied life and, drawing on the cosmological and historical references that so vividly underpin the lives of Aboriginal peoples throughout Australia, presented us all with a new and profound view of the land we occupy’.1 1. Akerman, K., ‘Rover Thomas; A Tribute’, ARTLINK, issue 20:1, March 2000, p. 22 – 23 CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE © Rover Thomas/Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Mar. 22, 2023
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), YELDA, WELL 33 ON THE CANNING STOCK ROUTE, 1989
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) (c.1926 - 1998) YELDA, WELL 33 ON THE CANNING STOCK ROUTE, 1989 natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas 60.0 x 105.0 cm bears inscription verso: YELDA by Rover Thomas / Mary Macha 1989 PROVENANCE Commissioned by Mary Macha, Perth (Stock number 1889) Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 2008 RELATED WORK Canning Stock Route, 1989, earth pigments and natural binders on canvas, 105.5 x 60.5 cm, in the Holmes à Court Collection, Perth ESSAY Yelda, Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route, 1989 is an intensely personal and autobiographical painting in that Rover Thomas has depicted the place where he was born and where his parents died and are buried. Yelda (Yalda/Yalta) is a soakage near Kunawarritji, also known as Well 33 on the central section of the Canning Stock Route. Rover Thomas’ mother, Ngakuyipa, belonged to the Kukatja group and his father, Lanikan Thomas, was a Wangkajunka man who reportedly assisted Alfred Canning as a guide to survey the Route in 1907. A severe drought in the late 1930s left Rover Thomas’s family destitute, on the point of starvation: some relatives headed north-east to Bililuna at the head of the Stock Route. Rover, then aged about eleven, remained as his mother died first, then his father. It was at Yelda that in 1942 the renowned stockman Wally Dowling picked up the young lad and took him to join his extended family on Bililuna Station on the south-eastern edge of the Kimberley where he grew up to become a stockman and fencer, and later in life a painter. The composition of the present work is dominated by lines of white pigment and red ochre outlined in black and white dots set against a typical thinly painted but visually rich ground. The application of paint is characteristic of Rover’s gestural bravura, of his assured and intuitive genius. An annotated diagram of the painting drawn by Mary Macha, Rover Thomas’s agent and friend, indicates that the circular form in the lower left represents the soakage at Yelda (‘Rover’s country’ in the diagram) above which ‘Tank 33’ is located. The horizontal white meandering line emanating from the soak represents a river which is surrounded by a white meander that depicts sand dunes, while the red and yellow ochred ground of the canvas is described as desert country. Related paintings by Rover Thomas include Canning Stock Route, also painted in 1989, in the Janet Holmes à Court Collection. Featured in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route at the National Museum of Australia in 2010, this related work most likely depicts the same soakage at Yelda. WALLY CARUANA © Rover Thomas/Copyright Agency 2023
Deutscher and Hackett
Oct. 19, 2021
Rover Thomas Joolama, (Australian, 1926-1988) "Marlu Kanagaroo Dreaming", silkscreen on paper, pencil signed "Rover", edition 39/49,...
Est: $300 - $600
Rover Thomas Joolama, (Australian, 1926-1988) "Marlu Kanagaroo Dreaming", silkscreen on paper, pencil signed "Rover", edition 39/49, unframed, 18" x 36-1/4 image, 29-5/8" x 41-1/2" sheet, good condition, Robert Steele Gallery NY; Robert Steele operated Anima Gallery in Adelaide, Australia as well as his gallery in New York. He represented and exhibited many contemporary American and international artists and was one of the most prominent dealers in Aboriginal art.
William Bunch Auctions & Appraisals
Aug. 31, 2021
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), LISSADELL STATION, 1990
Est: $40,000 - $50,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) (c.1926 - 1998) LISSADELL STATION, 1990 natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on canvas 100.5 x 140.0 cm bears inscription verso: artist’s name and Waringarri Artists cat. AP3356 PROVENANCE Waringarri Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia Chapman Gallery, Canberra Private collection, New South Wales, acquired from the above in April 1993 This work is accompanied by a copy of the certificate of authenticity from Waringarri Arts, Kununurra ESSAY Individual in style, the paintings of Rover Thomas created a new typology and visual language distinct to the east Kimberley region of Western Australia. By condensing complex mythological and topographical information and paring it back to its bare bones, Thomas articulated a highly personal way of telling stories and establishing connection to the land and its related ceremonies. His paintings map tracts of country utilising both planar and aerial views of land, whilst exploring the regional history and ancestral tales of these same locations. Painted in the same year that Thomas and Trevor Nickolls (1949 - 2012) became the first Aboriginal artists to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale, Lissadell Station, 1990, is characteristic of his work. Executed in earth pigments, the painting depicts an aerial view of the landscape where a central red ochre expanse narrows between two imposing and irregular forms painted in yellow pigment. These forms, which recall the rocky outcrops of the Kimberley plateau, are outlined in white dots made from huntite, a type of chalky white pigment. When used in ceremonial contexts and rock art in the eastern Kimberley, huntite is applied raw (that is, with little or no fixative) in order to retain its elemental purity. In his earlier canvases, Thomas applied the pigment in a similar way and over time, the huntite tended to absorb the resins in the surrounding paint. In this work, the white dots on the red ochre have taken up the underlying colour and become a deep pink. According to the accompanying Waringarri Arts catalogue notes, Thomas has depicted the traditional story of the Bat and the Crocodile. The painting shows the place on Lissadell Station where, in mythological times, the Crocodile (Lalanggarrany), a renowned dancer, was killed by the Bat (Binyjirrminy). Thinking the Crocodile would be good tucker and wanting him killed, the goanna told Bat that Crocodile had said he was too smelly. That evening everyone gathered for the Joonba (Ceremony) and Crocodile, dressed in his tall paperbark headdress, danced in the light of the fire. Lurking in the shadows and feeling slighted by Crocodile, Bat produced a spear and threw it, hitting him in the side and killing him. Everyone chased Bat, who escaped to the limestone caves on Lissadell Hill. Safely hidden in the caves, Binyjirrminy transformed into a bat permanently, hiding in the caves by day and venturing out only at night. CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE This work is located at our Melbourne gallery © Rover Thomas/Copyright Agency 2021
Deutscher and Hackett
Jun. 08, 2021
Rover Joolama Thomas - Lightning, 1995
Est: $90,000 - $110,000
Cooee Art Indigenous Fine Art Auction "Rover Thomas began to paint in the mid 1970s after working for more than thirty years as a stockman and labourer in his home country of the Great Sandy and Gibson Deserts. His paintings were deeply rooted in his knowledge of East Kimberley rock art and the more ephemeral body painting traditions. He often deployed broad areas of natural pigment and gum resin, using white dots to delineate various elements of an image. His landscapes relate to tracts of country, with specific sites of traditional or historic importance. A recurring theme in his work was the climatic manifestation of water, as in his record setting major works All that Big Rain Coming Down Topside and Cyclone Tracy, both created in 1991, and both in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia The blackness of Rover Thomas's paintings was described by playwright Louis Nowra as 'the black hole of violent nature, sucking up everything around it [...] brooding simplicity'* * L.Nowra, 'Blackness in the art of Rover Thomas' in Art and Australia, Vol 35, no.1, Sydney, 1997, pp 94,99 Contact Cooee Art for more information on this Aboriginal artwork.
Cooee Art
Jun. 08, 2021
Rover Joolama Thomas - Daytime Nightime, c.1983-84
Est: $30,000 - $40,000
Cooee Art Indigenous Fine Art Auction "For much of his adult life, Rover Thomas worked on cattle stations situated on the fringes of the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts, including Bow River station where he was married for the first time. Later he worked at Texas Downs, Old Lissadel and Mabel Downs, adjacent to the Warmun community at Turkey Creek, where he settled in his later years. Rover began painting in the late 1970s encouraged by his uncle Paddy Jaminji, who was born at Bedford Downs Station. This early work on plywood depicts day and night. Rover spent a lifetime looking up at the night sky after working cattle each day. The painting can also be read as the infinite landscape through which he travelled throughout his life. The work was collected on an early field trip, where it was found in a demountable building in the Mowanjum community. It is believed that this and other boards that accompanied it were brought to Mowanjum to be used in a dance ceremony in the early 1980s. A collection of them were purchased from David Mowaljarlai and other community members at the time." Contact Cooee Art for more information on this Aboriginal artwork.
Cooee Art
Apr. 20, 2021
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) circa 1926-1998 Ngayadi Ngayadi Country 1989 natural earth pigments and natural binders on canvas
Est: $60,000 - $80,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) circa 1926-1998 Ngayadi Ngayadi Country 1989 natural earth pigments and natural binders on canvas inscribed with Waringarri Arts catalogue numbers 'S-1982 / AP. 1887' verso 120 x 160 cm PROVENANCE: Waringarri Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia Private Collection, Sydney Sotheby's Australia Private Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 2003
Smith & Singer
Jul. 15, 2020
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), TRIBUTARIES OF THE ORD RIVER, 1991
Est: $200,000 - $300,000
THE PETER AND RENATE NAHUM COLLECTION OF ABORIGINAL ART, LONDON ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) (c.1926 – 1998) TRIBUTARIES OF THE ORD RIVER, 1991 natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas 90.5 x 180.0 cm signed verso: ROVER PROVENANCE Mary Macha, Perth Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 109 Private collection, Victoria Lawson~Menzies, Sydney, 30 July 2002, lot 81 Private collection, Switzerland Christie’s, London, 12 December 2007, lot 81 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London EXHIBITED On loan to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and exhibited in the general collection between 2002 – 2006 ESSAY Painted the year after Rover Thomas was the first Aboriginal artist to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale,1 Tributaries of the Ord River, 1991 is a robustly painted visual mnemonic of country well traversed by the artist in his days as a stockman in and around Texas Downs Station in the eastern Kimberley, towards the border with the Northern Territory. By the time of the Venice exhibition, Rover Thomas was acknowledged as the leading artist of the Eastern Kimberley painting movement that emerged at Warmun (Turkey Creek) in the 1980s. The catalyst for this movement was the Gurirr Gurirr, a barlga or public ceremony that was revealed to the artist when he first settled at Warmun in the wake of Cyclone Tracy that destroyed the city of Darwin in 1974 and wreaked havoc across the east Kimberley. The barlga bears witness to that catastrophic event and incorporates references to sites of significance throughout the Kimberley. As the owner of the ritual Thomas did not paint designs on the boards carried by the performers as is customary, yet when he commenced his painting career in the early 1980s his intuitive, free-form renditions of the landscape, particularly evident in Tributaries of the Ord River, brought a fresh dynamism to the movement. Ostensibly, Tributaries of the Ord River represents a map of water courses. The painting, however, is not a literal rendition of a geographic landscape. Typically, Rover Thomas overlays references to the ancestral past with the modern history of the eastern Kimberley, also incorporating a degree of autobiography. A number of the watercourses named by Thomas in describing this work may be difficult to find on conventional maps of the region, however they would be well known to stockmen who worked the area. The Ord River is depicted laterally across the canvas flowing from the top left corner to the top right, towards Lake Argyle and on to Kununurra. Of the many rivers and creeks that flow into the Ord, Rover Thomas has depicted five which he identifies as, clockwise from the lower left: Dinah Creek; Tomato Creek in the upper centre left; Horseman River; Harvey Creek in the lower right; and Mistake Creek in the middle of the lower register of the composition. All are described in swathes of yellow ochre apart from the latter which stands out in red against a black ground, indicating its significance within the schema of the painting. Each element is bordered by lines of dots characteristic of the Eastern Kimberley style, and the whole image is also framed by dots as if to indicate the painting depicts a section of country or is part of a larger narrative. Mistake Creek, that lies to the east of Texas Downs, evokes the Ngarrangkarni or Dreaming when the grassy lands around this stretch of river were subject to burning as represented by the surrounding black areas in the painting. It is also the site of a massacre of a group of Gija people along its shores in 1915, and where some years later another group sought refuge after a killing at Lajibany (Horseshoe Creek). References to these tragic events in the early years of gardiya (European) settlement in the eastern Kimberley are a recurring theme in Rover Thomas’s oeuvre. Suites of paintings about this brutal aspect of Kimberley history are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and the Janet Holmes à Court Collection, Perth.2 Thomas’ accounts of these harsh times, handed down orally over the decades, were never bitter or remorseful. He realised that these events were little known outside the region, yet they were stories that needed to be painted and in Thomas’ hands the painted landscape bears the evidence of all who walked upon it. The Ord River itself is a historic reference point as well as a physical reality to the Gija, into whose society Rover Thomas had been adopted, and neighbouring groups in the eastern Kimberley. For millennia it was the main, life sustaining waterway that was dammed in the 1960s to create Lake Argyle as the reservoir for the irrigation scheme that transformed the landscape, and the lives of its Aboriginal inhabitants. Tributaries of the Ord River has thematic and pictorial affinities with three paintings in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia: Lake Argyle, 1986, that depicts the Ord River; The camp at Mistake Creek, 1990;3 and the Texas Downs masterpiece All that big rain coming from top side, also painted in 1991.4 1. Along with the Adelaide born painter Trevor Nickolls (1949-2012) 2. For details of these paintings see Thomas, R. with K. Akerman, M. Macha, W. Christensen and W. Caruana, Roads Cross: The paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, and Carrigan, B., Rover Thomas: I want to paint, Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, 2003 3. Thomas, R. et al, pp. 17 and 50, respectively 4. Cubillo, F. and W. Caruana (eds.), Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art: Collection highlights, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2010, p. 89 WALLY CARUANA
Deutscher and Hackett
Jul. 15, 2020
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), BARAGU COUNTRY, 1989
Est: $50,000 - $70,000
THE PETER AND RENATE NAHUM COLLECTION OF ABORIGINAL ART, LONDON ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) (c.1926 – 1998) BARAGU COUNTRY, 1989 natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas 110.0 x 70.0 cm bears inscription verso: artist’s name, size, Waringarri Arts cat. S-1988 and AP1971 PROVENANCE Waringarri Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia (label attached verso) Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne (label attached verso) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 1989 EXHIBITED Turkey Creek: Recent Work: Rover Thomas/Paddy Jaminji/George Mung Mung/Jack Britten/Freddy Timms, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 25 October – 17 November 1989, cat. 4 (illus. exhibition catalogue front cover) ESSAY The art of Rover Thomas is synonymous with East Kimberley painting, but his origins lie further south in the Great Sandy Desert. Born at Yalta, a soak just north of Kunawarritji (Well 33) on the Canning Stock Route, after the death of his parents at the age of ten, he travelled north following stockmen along the Canning to Bililuna and beyond into the Kimberley. Rover eventually became a stockman himself and his travels across vast swathes of country infuse his later art practice. Painted for Waringarri Arts in Kununurra in 1989, the year before Rover Thomas was selected as one of the first two Aboriginal artists (together with Trevor Nickolls), to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale, Baragu Country exemplifies the best of his paintings. Layers of natural pigments affixed with a synthetic binder are outlined by a tracery of white dots painted with huntite, a white chalky pigment used in ceremony and rock art. The canvas, lightly infused with the natural pigments, develops a unique velvety surface. The work shows an aerial view of the landscape where two large irregular forms infilled with light sandy brown and light red/dusky pink pigments are bisected and surrounded by a narrow band of black charcoal. The subject of this painting is Lake Gregory, now known by its Walmajarri name Paruku, , which is a declared Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) that covers around 430,000 hectares on the borders of the Great Sandy Desert and Tanami regions, 200 kilometres south of the township of Halls Creek in Western Australia. An area of spectacular wetlands that is internationally renowned as a haven for large numbers of birds and other animals, it includes an extensive lake system, the only one in the region with a reliable source of fresh water. Primarily sourced from Tjurabalan (Sturt Creek) which flow into Lake Gregory from its beginnings some 800 kilometres north-east across the border in the Northern Territory, it is an important site for the local indigenous people. The traditional owners believe it was formed when a star fell from the sky into the lake and transformed itself into a man, becoming the very first Traditional Owner of this place. A breeding ground for budgerigars, Lake Gregory is also the home of the Billiluna Rainbow Snake. Rover Thomas articulated a highly personal way of telling stories and establishing connection to the land and its related ceremonies. Idiosyncratic in style, his paintings established a new typology and visual language distinct to the east Kimberley region of Western Australia. Both planar and aerial views of land are united in his compositions, where the past and the present also converge. They map tracts of country whilst exploring the regional history and ancestral tales of these same locations. Thomas’ compositions carefully balance the landscape and the narrative in natural harmony – executed in earth pigments and natural resins, his canvases are characterised by the interaction between large open expanses and bold forms. In August 2001 the High Court of Australia formally recognised the Traditional Owners of this area held native title over the land. The handover ceremony was conducted on the shores of Paruku, symbolising the significance of this place to local Aboriginal people. CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE g
Deutscher and Hackett
Jun. 23, 2020
Rover Joolama Thomas - Warmun - Map of Turkey Creek Community
Est: $12,000 - $18,000
Rover Thomas was born in Walmatjarri-Kukaja country near Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route. He lived a traditional bush life until he was taken to Billiluna Station at 11 years of age, where he was initiated after his mother's death. Rover subsequently spent a lifetime travelling the stock routes of Australiaâs far-north. After working for a period as a jackeroo on the Canning Stock Route, he became a fencing contractor in Wyndham and later worked as a stockman in the Northern Territory and the fringes of the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts, including Bow River Station and later Texas Downs, Old Lissadell and Mabel Downs. He finally settled in nearby Turkey Creek, where he became an artist in the late 1970s at 50 years of age. In time, he was acclaimed as a cultural leader and the seminal figure in establishing the East Kimberley painting movement. This work is likely to have been painted in 1983-1984, early in Rover Thomas' public painting career. That year he created a number of planar, map-like paintings, referring to sites and pathways of ancestral or historical significance and his own travels during his days as a drover on cattle stations in the region.
Cooee Art
Jun. 23, 2020
Rover Thomas & Jack Britten - Nightdance
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
Rover Tjomas was born at Koonawaratji, near Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route in the Western Desert region of Western Australia. He lived âthe old wayâ in the bush, hunting and gathering desert food with his family. At that time, Gudiyas (white people), usually drovers, would take young boys for work on Kimberley cattle stations. At 11 years of age, Rover was taken by the drover Wally Dowling to Bililuna at the top of the Canning Stock Route, and then to Bow River and Texas Downs near Warmun, where he learned his droving and fencing skills. He underwent tribal initiation and was given his skin name, Joolama, in the East Kimberley region, far to the north of his own country. Rover initiated the East Kimberley painting movement in the late 1970s. Jack Britten was born and raised in the bush in the lands to the south of Turkey Creek, west of the Bungle Bungles. At the time this work was created, he lived nearby at the tiny community of Frog Hollow. He remembered watching the camel wagon trains, with their Afghan drivers with supplies for the outstations, and the excitement of his first encounter with a motor vehicle. His horsemanship was legendary as he worked as a stockman on many East Kimberley pastoral leases, including Mabel Downs, Bow River, Lissadell, Texas Downs, and the old Bungle Bungles and Tickalara Cattle Stations. Jackâs knowledge of the myths and legends of the Dreamtime (Narrangunny) was vast and enabled him to produce hundreds of canvasses depicting his country. In this charming work on arches cotton rag paper, these two masters depict the dancers seen at Turkey Creek corroborees, conducted under moonlight. The men hold boomerangs as they dance, clapping in time with the rhythm of the music. Their bodies, faces, and tall headdresses are decorated with designs of white clay, illuminated by the fire at night.
Cooee Art
Jun. 23, 2020
Rover Joolama Thomas - Mook Mook the Owl Woman
Est: $35,000 - $45,000
Owls are central figures in Kimberley cosmology, said to have instituted many important cultural practices. They are connected to the Wandjina creator beings. The Wandjina are predominant in western and northern Kimberley, however, not so much in the east, where Rover Thomas lived and painted. The Mook Mook Owl is a major feature of the Krill Krill ceremony, created by Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji in the late 1970s. The owl is found in a cave at the Blue Tongue Lizard Dreaming site, adjacent to Pompei Pillar near the turnoff to the Argyle Diamond Mine. The cave site is called Tunnel Creek. Owls are said to be associated with birth and death amongst Gija people. In the Narrangunny (Dreaming story), an Aboriginal woman was sitting at a waterhole fishing for bream. After catching a few fish, she heard a fearsome noise coming from above. Thinking it was the 'devil-devil', she threw everything in the air and ran to her camp screaming. A few of the community's bravest men were dispatched to investigate the frightening sound. What they found while checking a small cave above the fishing hole were owls, 'damboyn', sitting in the darkness making their 'mook-mook' call; the sound was merely amplified by the cave walls.
Cooee Art
Jun. 23, 2020
Rover Joolama Thomas - Untitled - Barramundi Dreaming
Est: $35,000 - $55,000
Rover Thomas lived a traditional bush life with his family at Well 33 until, at 10 years of age, he moved with his family to Billiluna Station, where he was initiated after his mother's death. After working for a period as a jackeroo on the Canning Stock Route, he became a fencing contractor in Wyndham. Later he worked as a stockman in the Northern Territory and the fringes of the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts, including Bow River Station. There he married for the first time. Later, he moved on to Texas Downs, Old Lissadell, and Mabel Downs, adjacent to the Warmun community at Turkey Creek, where he settled in his later years. According to the story that accompanies this work, a beautiful Barramundi made its home in the Tharram river at Bandicoot Bar. The Barramundi travelled up the Dunham River, past where the Worrworrum community is today. A group of old women gave chase and it swam into a cave near the area now known as Barramundi Gap. As it entered the cave, the women prepared to catch it with nets made from dried and rolled Spinifex grass. The Barramundi realised it was trapped in the shallow water of the cave entrance and tried to escape by swimming to the other end. But the Barramundi could not find a way out. It returned to the entrance of the cave where the women were waiting with their nets. The big Barramundi swam towards the women and leapt over them, swimming through to Glen Hill, where some of its scales scraped off on the rocks as it passed through. You can see the scales of Barramundi Gap near the Glen Hill communityâs first gate - they are the white rocks on the top of the ranges and they gleam bright white when the sun hits them in the late afternoon. As the Barramundi died, it turned into a white stone. Its fat (a delicacy to the local people) became the pink diamonds and its organs became the brown and yellow stones sprinkled across the land. Three of the old women who chased the Barramundi to Cattle Creek peered into the water to look for it, when they too turned into stone, forever becoming part of the landscape. Today there are three stone formations overlooking the creek.
Cooee Art
Jun. 23, 2020
Rover Joolama Thomas - The Eaglehawk & The Crow
Est: $20,000 - $25,000
Rover Thomas was born at Koonawaratji, near Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route in the Western Desert region of Western Australia. As a young boy, he lived âthe old wayâ in the bush, hunting and gathering desert food with his family. At 11 years of age, Rover was taken by the drover Wally Dowling to Bililuna at the top of the Canning Stock Route, and late to Bow River and Texas Downs, near Warmun, where he honed his droving and fencing skills.â¨ Having been accepted by the Kija people as one of their own, Rover underwent tribal initiation and was given the skin name Joolama in the East Kimberley region, far to the north of his own country. In the late 1970s Rover became the founder of the East Kimberley painting movement. The story that accompanies this work reads: Eaglehawk, (koondooroo), is watching Crow (wonjanali), to ensure that he doesnât get to the heart of dead Kangaroo, (malu malu,) as that is eaglehawkâs favourite food (mungari).
Cooee Art
Apr. 21, 2020
Thomas, Rover Joolama Lake Tobin 44/99 Limited Edition Print on Paper paper: 61 x 80 cm Image: 43 x 62 cm
Est: $1,400 - $2,500
Lake Tobin lies between Wells 38 and 39, on the Canning Stock Route. It is part of an ancient river system, and is the largest of a chain of lakes, known, collectively, as the Percival Lakes. The Cliffs nearby provide the water to the river system. With large stands of desert oaks providing shade, it is a popular stopping place for the sun-drenched desert traveller. In this work Rover depicted the trees interspersed with large termite mounds along the high watermark. Weight 1 kg Dimensions 65 × 9 × 9 cm Medium Screenprint Artist Rover Thomas Image Size 450 mm x 650 mm Paper BFK Rives Paper Size 600 mm x 800 mm Edition Size 99 Studio Studio One and Megalo Access Arts Canberra, ACT Types Prints Region The Kimberley
Cooee Art
Dec. 03, 2019
Rover Joolama Thomas (1926-1998) Wolf Creek Crater
Est: $18,000 - $22,000
Rover Thomas was born in Walmatjarri-Kukaja country near Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route and spent a lifetime travelling the stock routes of Australia’s far-north, before finally settling in Gija tribal country at Turkey Creek. He became an artist in the late 1970s, at 50 years of age, and in time was acclaimed as a cultural leader and the seminal figure in establishing the East Kimberley painting movement. His paintings depict the places of his travels and their Dreaming stories and, in common with Central and Western Desert art, Rover’s work is familiarly characterised by an aerial, omnipotent perspective. In this lovely small work, Rover Thomas re-imagines one of his favourite places on the edge of the Gibson Desert, the Wolf Creek Crater. Alongside it is one of the rare but reliable all-year-round springs to be found in the area. The crater itself abounds with Dreamtime myths and legends. Rover’s paintings draw the viewer into spacious planes of painterly applied and textured ochre. In this work, the white dots serve only to create emphasis and draw the eye along pathways of time and movement, following the forms of the land in which important events are encoded. Warm and earthy ochres, along with the palpable sense of spirituality, invite the viewer to consider the unfolding of important events at this place, while at the same time placing the viewer within an ancient and timeless landscape.
Cooee Art
Dec. 03, 2019
Rover Joolama Thomas (1926-1998) Hills at Bottle Tree Creek
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
Thomas began painting in his 50s, after spending forty years as a stockman. 'I been all over, me,' he said, when describing his intimate knowledge and involvement with the vast expanses of sparse desert and Kimberley terrain. He settled at Warmun in 1975. He began painting as an individual artist in 1981 and his lead soon sparked a spiritual and cultural revival within the community, gradually expanding its influence and establishing the distinctive East Kimberley painting style as exemplified by this small work in which he depicted one of the many camping sites he visited on his peripatetic travels. Rover Thomas died in 1998. He is recognised as one of the major figures in contemporary Australian Aboriginal art. His legacy is a substantial body of significant paintings that provide an enduring, unique insight into the numinous landscape of the Kimberley region and the human relationships and events that have become part of its history.
Cooee Art
Dec. 03, 2019
Rover Joolama Thomas (1926-1998) Great Sandy Desert - Canning Stock Route
Est: $20,000 - $25,000
This unique insight into the numinous landscape of the Kimberley region and the human relationships and events that have become part of its history, celebrates the artist's love of his spirit country, The Great Sandy Desert, and his deep connection to the landscape of his youth and adulthood. This mysteriously restful and yet haunting image gives us a window into the artist's spiritual eye. In his true minimalist style, the Canning Stock Route, a black line bordered by white dots, surrounds and frames a richly vivid image of the Great Sandy Desert. Rover indicated that the sparse ethereal washed ground created in broad brushstrokes depicted sand patterns and changing lights in the vast desert landscape.
Cooee Art
Sep. 24, 2019
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), GUNOWAGGI (THE DAYS OF WALLY DOWLING), 1995
Est: $30,000 - $40,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) (c.1926 - 1998) GUNOWAGGI (THE DAYS OF WALLY DOWLING), 1995 natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on linen SIGNED: bears inscription verso: size and Waringarri Aboriginal Arts cats. AP0636 and S720 DIMENSIONS: 100.0 x 141.0 cm PROVENANCE: Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia William Mora Galleries, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1995 EXHIBITED 'Rover Thomas - Well 33 Revisited', William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, 1995
Deutscher and Hackett
Jun. 04, 2019
Â Rover Joolama Thomas (1926-1998) Two Ceremony Men 1996
Est: $12,000 - $15,000
Acclaimed as a cultural leader and the seminal figure in establishing the East Kimberley School, Rover Thomas was actually born hundreds of kilometers to the south of Gidja country, on the fringes of the Western Desert. So remote was his birthplace that, had he not spent a lifetime of travel and finally settled in the north, he would most likely painted with closer aesthetic ties to the Pintupi painters of Kintore and Kiwirrkurra. The subject of this painting refers to ancestors of the Western Desert peoples whose influence spread into the Kimberley with the migrations of desert peoples to the area. These two spirit ancestors traversed the land and created sacred sites while giving people the law and culture. Their law continues to inform the initiations of young men to this day. The profound secret/sacred nature of their teachings belong to the esoteric realm of men's law and are not discussed in public. In this painting minimal forms are juxtaposed and framed by the dot work along the edges. They appear as if we are looking at a painting within a painting. The Rothko-esque surface imbues this landscape with a sense of spirituality and sacredness; like seeing deeper into a place beyond words, as befits the sanctity of the ancestors themselves.
Cooee Art
May. 21, 2019
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), GUWALIWALI COUNTRY, 1989
Est: $40,000 - $60,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) (1926 – 1998) GUWALIWALI COUNTRY, 1989 natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on canvas SIGNED: bears inscription verso: artist’s name, size and Waringarri Aboriginal Arts cat. S-1989 and AP 1972 DIMENSIONS: 70.0 x 110.5 cm PROVENANCE: Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED: Turkey Creek: Recent Work, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 25 October – 17 November 1989, cat. 5 LITERATURE: Smoker, J., et al., Turkey Creek, Recent Work, exhibition catalogue, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 1989, p. 5 (illus.) ESSAY: Painted in the year before Rover Thomas, along with Trevor Nickolls, became the first Aboriginal artists to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale, Guwaliwali, 1989 presents a plan view of the east Kimberley landscape where lines indicate paths travelled, tracks and roads, or delineate geographic features and circumscribe discreet areas of country. Characteristic of the Rover’s paintings, the conjunction of dotted lines simultaneously suggest a profile view, as though one were standing on the red-ochred earth looking at a distant hilly range. The asymmetrical geometry of the composition is characteristic of Rover Thomas’s paintings although the angularity of the lines in this work is somewhat unusual. A similar orthogonal angularity appears in two large canvases that were painted in the same year and that were also shown in the Deutscher Gertrude Street exhibition of recent work from Turkey Creek in 1989: Dreamtime story of the willy willy, 1989, and Yari country, 1989, which is composed of a series of rectangles, were acquired from that exhibition by the National Gallery of Victoria.1 The exhibition featuring Guwaliwali was mounted by Waringarri Aboriginal Arts that had been established in 1986 in Kununurra to represent the Aboriginal artists of the region. In the exhibition catalogue, Joel Smoker, the art co-ordinator at Waringarri, records Rovers’ enthusiasm to paint. He describes Rover Thomas as being ‘very prolific’, having requested boards and eventually stretched canvases on which to paint, and that he could ‘never supply [Rover] as fast as he would like’. 1. see Ryan, J. and K. Akerman (eds.), Images of Power: Aboriginal art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1993, pp. 60 and 61 respectively WALLY CARUANA
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 27, 2018
Rover Joolama Thomas (1926-1998) Rainbow Jowie - Lake Billiluna 1995
Est: $50,000 - $60,000
Rover Thomas lived a traditional bush life with his family at Well 33 until he moved, at 10 years of age, with his family to Billiluna Station, where he was initiated, after his mother's death. After working for a period as a jackeroo on the Canning Stock Route he became a fencing contractor in Wyndham and later worked as a stockman in the Northern Territory and the fringes of the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts including Bow River Station, where he was married for the first time, and later at Texas Downs, Old Lissadell and Mabel Downs, adjacent to the Warmun community at Turkey Creek, where he settled in his later years. In this work Rover depicts Lake Billiluna (red oxide) located in the Western Desert near Gordon Downs (Kundart Djaru) close to the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The Lake is a breeding ground for budgerigars and a significant site being the home of the Billiluna Rainbow Jowie. At this site a mythical dog (dingo) killed emus. They had a big fight and the emus now lie in the middle of the lake having left behind sacred objects on their travels. In relating this story the artist indicated that the Jowie (Rainbow Serpent) lived in the lake in the area to the extreme right of the paining. He travels only in the absence of strong wind, to avoid being blown away thereby losing his home in the bottom of the lake. The black areas around the lake represent hills. The Jowie originally gave all the languages and site names for this region. All wind and rain emanates from and is connected to the Jowie. This important work was commissioned from the artist and painted during his trip to Melbourne in 1995.
Cooee Art
Nov. 27, 2018
Rover Joolama Thomas (1926-1998) Owls at Tunnel Creek 1984
Est: $14,000 - $16,000
In this painting Rover depicts the Mook Mook Owl and her young at a place called Tunnel Creek. Also depicted is Blue Tongue Lizard Dreaming near the Argyle mine turnoff. The black circle represents a cave and the arch represents the entrance: to the cave. The Spotted Nightjar and the Owlet Nightjar who in human form created the moieties and the rules of marriage, and other cultural practices are two of the most important totemic beings in the Kimberley region in the North West of Australia. They are associated with Wandjina beings known as Wanalirri, and through the Wunan exchange ceremonial cycle which the owls created, spread affiliation to the Wandjina to the eastern Kimberley. The Wanalirri song cycle composed about 1972 by the Worora elder, Wattie Ngerdu, relates a battle between the Wandjina and humans over the treatment of the owls by children. The ensuing battle nearly caused the destruction of the human race. The Ancestral Owl, which goes by a number of names, including Mook Mook, is one of the few subjects that the Rover Thomas rendered in a naturalistic fashion in his paintings.
Cooee Art
Aug. 29, 2018
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c.1926 – 1998), SMALL CREEK NEAR TURKEY CREEK, 1990, natural earth pigments and natural binders on canvas
Est: $30,000 - $50,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c.1926 – 1998), SMALL CREEK NEAR TURKEY CREEK, 1990, natural earth pigments and natural binders on canvas SIGNED: bears inscription verso: GUARANTEED THE ORIGINAL WORK OF / ROVER THOMAS, 1990 / Mary Macha DIMENSIONS: 60.5 x 105.5 cm PROVENANCE: Commissioned by Mary Macha, Perth Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1990 RELATED WORK: Canning Stock Route, 1989, ochre and natural binders on canvas, 106.0 x 61.0 cm, in the Holmes à Court Collection, Perth ESSAY: Rover Thomas’s practice of rendering sites, stories and landscapes of the eastern Kimberley in a planar, map-like perspective was a radical innovation and one which created an entirely original mode of depicting the land, redefining the conceptual framework by which Aboriginal art was judged. This form of landscape painting, with the elements of each work referring to sites of ancestral or historical significance, and routes travelled by both the creator beings and the artist himself in his days as a drover on cattle stations in the region, became the basis of the style now recognised as the East Kimberley or Warmun School of Australian art. Rover Thomas moved to Turkey Creek (Warmun) in early 1975. A government reserve, Warmun had previously been a rations depot and apart from a post office had few other facilities or amenities. Here, Indigenous workers displaced from the cattle stations found a place of refuge and for Rover Thomas, Paddy Tjamatji and other artists, Warmun also provided the background for their creative output, as the place where the Kuirr Kuirr song cycle first emerged and where the ensuing art movement flourished. Painted in Mary Macha’s studio in Subiaco, Perth, Small Creek Near Turkey Creek, 1990 is characteristic of Rover’s early paintings where layers of traditional pigments affixed with natural resin binders are outlined by a tracery of white dots painted with huntite, a white chalky pigment used in ceremony and rock art. The work shows a planar view of landscape where lines indicate a small meandering creek and road close to Warmun, while at the same time recalling ancestral paths and delineating areas of country. Rover Thomas was widely recognised as a significant Australian artist by the late 1980s, participating in group exhibitions throughout Australia every year from 1987 until his death in 1998. In 1990 he was awarded the John McCaughey Prize and was one of the first two Aboriginal artists (together with Trevor Nickolls), to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. In his tribute to Rover Thomas, Kim Akerman noted that, ‘as an artist he took the experiences of a rich and varied life and, drawing on the cosmological and historical references that so vividly underpin the lives of Aboriginal peoples throughout Australia, presented us all with a new and profound view of the land we occupy’.1 1. Akerman, K., ‘Rover Thomas; A Tribute’, ARTLINK, issue 20:1, March 2000, p. 22 – 23 CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE
Deutscher and Hackett
Mar. 14, 2018
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) CIRCA 1926-1998 | Untitled
Est: £40,000 - £60,000
Natural pigments and natural binders (bush gum) on canvas
Sotheby's
Sep. 20, 2017
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c.1926 1998), UNTITLED, 1993, natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on canvas
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c.1926 1998), UNTITLED, 1993, natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on canvas SIGNED: bears inscription verso: artist's name and Waringarri Arts cat. AP3781 and S.4306 bears inscription on label attached verso: #4 DIMENSIONS: 40.0 x 50.0 cm PROVENANCE: Waringarri Arts, Kununurra Utopia Art Sydney, Sydney Private collection, Melbourne
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 30, 2016
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c.1926 - 1998), UNTITLED, 1988, natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas
Est: $18,000 - $25,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c.1926 - 1998), UNTITLED, 1988, natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas DIMENSIONS: 55.0 x 85.0 cm PROVENANCE: Painted at Warmun, Turkey Creek Mark Anderton, South Australia Sotheby's, Melbourne, 20 October 2008, lot 278 Private collection, New South Wales Sotheby's Australia, Melbourne, 7 June 2011, lot 93 Private collection, Tasmania
Deutscher and Hackett
Oct. 19, 2016
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c.1926 1998), RUBY PLAINS MASSACRE 1, 1985, natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas
Est: $300,000 - $400,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c.1926 1998), RUBY PLAINS MASSACRE 1, 1985, natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas DIMENSIONS: 90.0 x 180.0 cm PROVENANCE: Commissioned in 1985 by Mary Macha, Perth Holmes à Court Collection, Heytesbury, Western Australia (accession no. 1260) Sotheby's, Sydney, 24 June 2002, lot 113 Private collection Sotheby's, Sydney, 25 November 2007, lot 79 The Luczo Family Collection, USA RELATED WORK: Ruby Plains Killing 2, 1990, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, illus. in Thomas, R., et al., Roads Cross: The Paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, p. 45 Bedford Downs Massacre, 1987, illus. in Carrigan, B., Rover Thomas: I want to paint, Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, 2003, cat. 11 Bedford Downs Massacre, 1985, illus. in Carrigan, B., Rover Thomas: I want to paint, Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, 2003, cat. 12 ESSAY: Originally in the Holmes à Court Collection, this painting is one of the first produced by Rover Thomas that concerns the killings of Aboriginal people in the eastern Kimberley that occurred from late 19th century through to the 1920s. The killings usually happened in retaliation for what was perceived by the cattle station owners as the theft of cattle by local Aboriginal people living in a traditional manner. The introduction of cattle in the Kimberley polluted the freshwater wells and streams that fed large game such as kangaroo and emu that Aboriginal people relied on for protein; deprived of that source, they resorted to hunting another type of meat that had become available. Rover Thomas paintings of these conflicts at Bedford Downs, Texas Downs and Ruby Plains cattle stations constitute a form of history painting, based upon not first-hand experience but oral history. Several of these paintings are held in the Holmes à Court Collection and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. In Rover Thomas record of the Ruby Plains killing, he describes how the station owner and manager discover a group of men butchering a cow. They shoot two, maybe four men and decapitate them, placing the heads in hollow tree trunks. Over the following days, Aboriginal stockmen at Ruby Plains search for them and are led to the killing site by crows circling above. As a result, they abandon the cattle station which is forced to close. Significantly, while the majority of Thomas paintings are devoid of figurative imagery, those about the Ruby Plains killing contain an image of a skull inside a hollow tree trunk. WALLY CARUANA
Deutscher and Hackett
May. 21, 2015
ROVER THOMAS JOOLAMA COMMUNAUTE DE PU
Est: €17,000 - €19,000
ROVER THOMAS JOOLAMA COMMUNAUTE DE PUNMU AU LAC SALE DORA / SALT LAKE, 1996 Ocre naturelle sur toile 121,5 cm x 91 cm
Cornette de Saint-Cyr
Mar. 08, 2015
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c1926 - 1998), YILLIMBIDDI COUNTRY (WITH SNAKES), 1989, natural earth pigments with bush gum on canvas
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c1926 - 1998), YILLIMBIDDI COUNTRY (WITH SNAKES), 1989, natural earth pigments with bush gum on canvas SIGNED: inscribed verso: artist's name, size and Waringarri Aboriginal Arts cat. S-1831 and AP1852 DIMENSIONS: 100.0 x 140.0 cm EXHIBITED: Turkey Creek: Recent Work, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 25 October - 17 November 1989, cat. 9 (label attached verso) PROVENANCE: Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Sydney, purchased in 1989
Deutscher and Hackett
Mar. 08, 2015
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c1926 - 1998), BARRAMUNDI DREAMING, 1992, natural earth pigments with bush gum on canvas
Est: $50,000 - $70,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c1926 - 1998), BARRAMUNDI DREAMING, 1992, natural earth pigments with bush gum on canvas SIGNED: inscribed verso: artist's name, date, title and signed by Mary Macha DIMENSIONS: 60.0 x 100.0 cm LITERATURE: Beyond Sacred: Recent Painting from Australia's Remote Aboriginal Communities: The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne, 2008, pp. 206-207 (illus.) PROVENANCE: Mary Macha, Subiaco, Perth The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Sydney, purchased in July 1992
Deutscher and Hackett
Mar. 08, 2015
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c1926 - 1998), BARRAMUNDI DREAMING, 1984, natural earth pigments with bush gum on plywood
Est: $60,000 - $80,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), (c1926 - 1998), BARRAMUNDI DREAMING, 1984, natural earth pigments with bush gum on plywood DIMENSIONS: 69.0 x 113.0 cm EXHIBITED: A Century of Collecting 1901>2001, curated by Nick Waterlow, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, 29 March - 28 April 2001 Remembering Forward: Australian Aboriginal Painting since 1960 / Malerei Der Australischen Aborigines seit 1960, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, 20 November 2010 - 20 March 2011, cat. 20 (illus. p. 59 in exhibition catalogue) LITERATURE: Beyond Sacred: Recent Painting from Australia's Remote Aboriginal Communities: The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne, 2008, pp. 204-205 (illus.) Beyond Sacred: Australian Aboriginal Art: The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, edition II, Kleimeyer Industries Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 2011, pp. 216-217 (illus.) PROVENANCE: Mary Macha, Subiaco, Perth The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Sydney, purchased in December 1993
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 26, 2014
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), c1926 - 1998, OWL, 1988, natural earth pigments on canvas-board
Est: $30,000 - $50,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), c1926 - 1998, OWL, 1988, natural earth pigments on canvas-board DIMENSIONS: 50.5 x 40.5 cm PROVENANCE: Mary Macha, Perth Private collection Sotheby's, Sydney, 25 November 2007, lot 46 Private collection, Adelaide RELATED WORK: The Story of Owl (Dumbiny), 1988, collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, illus. in Cumpston, N., and Patton, B., Desert Country: Contemporary Aboriginal Painting, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2010, pp. 90-91 Goolgool the Owl with Four Young, 1988, collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, illus. in O'Ferrall, M.A., On the Edge: Five Contemporary Aboriginal Artists: Bede Tungutalum, Rover Thomas, Mandjuwi, Milpurrurru, Trevor Nickolls, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 1989, p. 36, pl. 14 Grugrugi: Owl, 1989, Holmes à Court Collection, Perth, illus. in Brody, A.M., et al, Contemporary Aboriginal Art: The Robert Holmes à Court Collection, Heytesbury Holdings Ltd, Perth, 1990, p. 23, pl. 1, and illus. in Carrigan, B., Rover Thomas: I Want to Paint, Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, 2003, cat. 20 Story of Owl, 1988, collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, illus. in Eather, M., and Hall, M., Balance 1990: Views, Visions, Influences, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1990, p. 18 The significance of Rover Thomas's art lies in his deep-rooted knowledge of the past, in his role as a custodian of the Kurirr Kurirrceremony and in his highly idiosyncratic style. The past and the present converge in Thomas's enigmatic paintings that explore the history of the land and the ancestral tales. 'Thomas elaborated on the pictorial conventions of the region to articulate a highly personal vision. He introduced an interplay between broad areas of natural colour, unfaltering line, bold forms, and uncompromising composition.'1 Mapping out the land in strong earthy tones and abstract shapes, Thomas carefully balances the landscape and the narrative in perfect harmony. He would often utilise two modes of perspective, an aerial view of the roads and the countryside and a profile view of landscape features and figures as demonstrated in Owl, contrasting the figure against the block colours.One of the few subjects that the artist rendered in a naturalistic fashion, the profile of the owl is delineated by daubs of white paint as is the background, which is separated into three colours. This stippling which has become typical of Thomas's celebrated works, references his birthplace in the desert and the art of that region. Known by a number of names, the Ancestral Owl is a central figure in Kimberley cosmology and is responsible for a number of ceremonial practices. The Owl has a connection to the Wanjina beings found predominantly in western and northern Kimberley, but not so much in the east, where the artist lived and painted. Thomas is therefore expressing a link between his original desert heritage and that of the east Kimberley, within the milieu of general Kimberley cosmology. Although the artist reveals some information to the uninitiated, the esoteric information that is held sacred to him and his people is concealed from the public and layered underneath the common visual narrative. There is a haunting complexity that is disguised by the minimalist composition. Thomas's connection to the land and as a custodian of important Dreamings reverberates throughout his oeuvre, as each work is an ode to the land, his people and their history both physical and spiritual. 1. Caruana, W., Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, New York, 1993, p. 177 CASSI YOUNG Under the provisions of the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986, buyers may be required to obtain an export permit for certain categories of items in this sale from the Cultural Property, Collections and Cultural Heritage Branch, Ministry for the Arts, Attorney-General's Department, email: movable.heritage@arts.gov.au
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 26, 2014
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), c1926 - 1998, GULABAL - SNAKE, 1989, natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA), c1926 - 1998, GULABAL - SNAKE, 1989, natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas SIGNED: inscribed verso: artist's name and Waringarri Aboriginal Arts cat. AP3052 and S.2037 DIMENSIONS: 120.0 x 160.0 cm EXHIBITED: Turkey Creek: Recent Work, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 25 October - 17 November 1989, cat. 11 PROVENANCE: Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra (label attached verso) Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1989 RELATED WORK: Dreamtime Story of the Willy Willy, 1989, in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, illus. in Ryan, J., and Akerman, K., (eds), Images of Power: Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1993, p. 60 Gulabal - Snake, 1989, was painted in the year before Rover Thomas, along with Trevor Nickolls (1949 - 2012), became the first Aboriginal artists to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. The painting displays the vitality and assurance of a painter at the peak of his career. The work features a number of painterly elements that are characteristic of Rover Thomas's approach at the time. The white dots are made from huntite, a type of white chalky pigment. Huntite is used in ceremonial contexts and in rock art in the eastern Kimberley where it is applied raw (that is, with little or no fixative) in order to retain its elemental purity. Until about 1990, Rover Thomas applied the pigment in a similar way onto his canvases, where over time the huntite tends to absorb the resins in the surrounding or underlying paint, as is the case in this picture, especially in the black bands across the top and left. In the ground of the picture, Rover's application of paint is characteristically unpredictable - there are no lazy brush strokes - producing an animated surface where thin veils of colour jostle with densely-worked areas. The painting was produced for Waringarri Arts in Kununurra in the eastern Kimberley which, in the late 1980s, was an agent for the artists of Warmun (Turkey Creek), 200 kilometres to the south. According to Waringarri's catalogue notes, Thomas has depicted the ancestor Gulabal in the form of a snake, against a ground representing sand. The ancestor lies beside a body of water that is bounded by a 'reef' or rocky outcrop. Nonetheless, the painting belies such a literal description. The ancestor has the power of metamorphosis, transforming its physical shape from that of a serpent to a man, then into a number of animal species, including a dog and pelican, before finally assuming the form of a woman. The notion of metamorphosis, of change, seems to be emphasised by the spiral of the sinuously drawn Snake's tail, which recalls the artist's renditions of the winds of Cyclone Tracy, the cataclysmic event that was to become Rover's Dreaming, the Kurirr Kurirr. WALLY CARUANA Under the provisions of the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986, buyers may be required to obtain an export permit for certain categories of items in this sale from the Cultural Property, Collections and Cultural Heritage Branch, Ministry for the Arts, Attorney-General's Department, email: movable.heritage@arts.gov.au
Deutscher and Hackett
Apr. 15, 2014
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) circa 1926-1998 Dingo Story (1996) natural earth pigments and synthetic binders on canvas
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) circa 1926-1998 Dingo Story (1996) natural earth pigments and synthetic binders on canvas signed 'ROVER' verso 111 x 87 cm PROVENANCE Painted at Warmun, Western Australia Utopia Art, Sydney Private Collection, Sydney (1996) This painting is sold with gallery documentation. PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SYDNEY
Smith & Singer
Mar. 26, 2014
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) c1926 - 1998, RED ROCK STOCKYARD, 1996, coloured etching and aquatint
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) c1926 - 1998, RED ROCK STOCKYARD, 1996, coloured etching and aquatint SIGNED: signed and numbered below image DIMENSIONS: 49.0 x 64.5 cm PROVENANCE: Chapman Gallery, Canberra Private collection, Canberra
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 27, 2013
Rover Thomas c1926 - 1998, NGOWADA-MUNY COUNTRY, 1988 natural earth pigments and natural binder on canvas
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
Rover Thomas c1926 - 1998, NGOWADA-MUNY COUNTRY, 1988 natural earth pigments and natural binder on canvas SIGNED: inscribed verso: artist's name, size and Waringarri Aboriginal Arts cats S-1607 and AP.1754 DIMENSIONS: 40.5 x 50.0 cm PROVENANCE: Executed at Warmun (Turkey Creek, Western Australia) Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, Sydney Private collection, Tasmania
Deutscher and Hackett