Lot 70: OLD MICK WALLANKARRI TJAKAMARRA CIRCA 1905-1996

POSSUM LOOKING FOR FOOD IN THE SANDHILLS 1971

MEASUREMENTS

33 by 26 cm

Synthetic polymer paint on composition board

PROVENANCE
Painted at Papunya in May 1971 Private collection, New South Wales
LITERATURE
Illustrated in 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, p.119, painting number 44; Bardon, G., Papunya Tula: Art of the Western Desert, Mcphee Gribble, Melbourne, 1991, p. 125, illus. Cf. For other early works by the artist see Maughan, J. and J. Zimmer (eds.), Dot and Circle: A Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Paintings of Central Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, 1986; Mellor, D. and V. Megaw (eds.), Twenty-Five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting, Flinders University Press, Adelaide, 1999; Perkins, H. and H. Fink (eds.), Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales in association with Papunya Tula Artists, Sydney, 2000; and Ryan, J., Mythscapes: Aboriginal Art of the Desert from the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1989; Two related paintings are 'Water Dreaming with Possum Story', 1973, in Perkins and Fink, 2000, p.59, and in Bardon, 1999, pp.68-9 and cover, and 'Walangurru', 1976, in Mellor and Megaw, 1999, p.37 illus. The artist, referred to as Old Mick Tjakamarra by Geoffrey Bardon, was one of the custodians of the Honey Ant Dreaming which was painted onto the school walls at Papunya in 1971. He also had a major role in the execution of the murals. His 'Honey Ant Dreaming', 1973, was the first Papunya painting to enter the collection of the National Gallery of Australia Mick Wallangkarri's early paintings featured a restricted palette of traditional colours. In this painting the lines of white dots indicate the sandhills while the black lines are their shadows, or the spaces between the sandhills. The E-shaped footprints of the possum rise in two columns up the centre of the work