Lot 85: JOHN KIPARRA TJAKAMARRA 1931-2003

UNTITLED 1972

MEASUREMENTS

54 by 55 cm (irregular)

Bears Stuart Art Centre consignment number 19247 on the reverse
Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board

PROVENANCE
Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs Sotheby's Important Aboriginal Art, 30 June 1997, lot 187 Private collection, Sydney
EXHIBITED
Papunya Tula, Twenty One Years, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, October 1992 Cf. For two stylistically related paintings from the same period see Sotheby's Aboriginal Art, 26-27 July 2004, lots 98 and 99; see also 'Travels of the Tingari Ancestors' 1972, and 'Men and Women' 1972, in Perkins, H. and H. Fink, Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales in association with Papunya Tula Artists, Sydney, 2000, pp.36-37, illus.; Bardon, G., Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert, Rigby, Adelaide, 1979; for a number of examples of the artist's early work see Bardon, G. and J. Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story:The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2004 This painting belonged to Papunya Tula Artists for 25 years before the company decided to sell the work in 1997. Although the description of the related narrative has been lost, the designs indicate a major ceremonial scene with four people around a ritual camp or sand painting, with other ground painting designs in each of the quadrants of the board. The work bears the staccato stippling that is a hallmark of the early style of the artist