Lot 18: CHARLIE NUMBULMOORE CIRCA 1907-1971 WANJINA C.1970 62 by 38.5 cm Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark Provenance: Painted at Gibb River Station, West Kimberley, Western Australia Tom McCourt, South Australia Private collection, South Australia

CHARLIE NUMBULMOORE CIRCA 1907-1971 WANJINA C.1970 62 by 38.5 cm Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark Provenance: Painted at Gibb River Station, West Kimberley, Western Australia Tom McCourt, South Australia Private collection, South Australia Sotheby's Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 26/27 June 2000, Lot 15 Private collection, Sydney Cf Crawford I.M., The Art Of The Wandjina: Aboriginal Cave Paintings in the Kimberley, Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1968, for a discussion of Wanjina paintings and related works by the artist; McCourt, T., Aboriginal Artefacts, Rigby Ltd., Adelaide, 1975, pp.47, 48, 52, 53, for related paintings of Wanjina by the artist including one on cardboard at the artist camp at Gibb River; Ryan, J., Images of Power: of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1993,pp.15-19, for discussion of Wanjina paintings, and pp.20-21 for two other paintings illustrated by the artist; Berndt, R.M. and L. Phillips (eds), Australian Aboriginal Heritage, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1973, p.219, pl.229 for a related painting entitled 'The Wanjina Beings at Mamadai - East of Gibb River Station'. This painting was acquired directly from the artist at the Aboriginal camp on Gibb River Station, by author and artefact collector, Tom McCourt. McCourt in his journals from the time remarks that Numbulmoore was 'the last of the old people here...who has that certain something that impresses you' and continues, 'when I was in Charlie's camp I bought several paintings he had in his hut from him...Although his work is childlike, it has the primitive look of the paintings seen under the rock overhangs out in the bush, some of which he has painted and touched up in the past'. Indeed the artist retouched Wanjina paintings at Mamadai rock shelter in the presence of Ian Crawford in 1968 (Ryan 1992, p.16). Judith Ryan has written that Ngarinyin man Charlie Numbulmoore's works 'are characterised by huge black eyes encircled by eye lashes, a large black oval on the breast bone, no band around the shoulders, and dense white pigment on the head and torso. The headdress, decorated with parallel rows of red-ochre dots, represents clouds coming up and falling rain'. Ryan notes with regard to another example on bark painted in 1970 that 'the thick white paint and intense black features of this bark recapture for the viewer the strength and power of the original icons on rock' (ibid.). This painting has been used as part of an advertising campaign for Ozemail, where a number of notable Australians were photographed with Australian cultural emblems. Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was photographed in front of this Wanjina painting. A large format print of the above advertisment is included with this lot