Lot 74: PADDY TJAMATJI (JAMPIN) CIRCA 1912-1996 TAWURR THE KANGAROO AT KANMANTURR

60 BY 59.5CM

natural earth pigments and natural binder on plywood

Selections from the Austcorp Group Limited Collection of Aboriginal Art, New Australian Art exhibition series, The Deloitte Foundation, Sydney, series curator: Barbara Flynn, 8 October-14 December 2007

Selections from the Austcorp Group Limited Collection of Aboriginal Art, New Australian Art exhibition series, Sydney: The Deloitte Foundation, 2007, p.14

Acquired directly from the artist at Warmun (Turkey Creek), Western Australia in 1987
Private collection
Sotheby's, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 26-27 July, 2004, lot 28
The Austcorp Group Limited Art Collection

Cf. Kim Akerman, 'The Art of Kurirr-Kurirr Ceremony' in L. Taylor (ed.), Painting the Land Story, Canberra: National Museum of Australia, 1999, pp.14-32, pl.9

Another version of this painting is in the collection of the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. Kim Akerman writes with regard to this work: 'This is the image of the Tawurr, the kangaroo ancestor as it appears on the cave wall at Kanmanturr (Elgee Cliffs), on Bedford Downs Station. The kangaroo is described as "half-one" because the bottom part of the rock painting has eroded away. The power of the kangaroo is still in this place. Nearby are the spirits of Aboriginal people killed long ago by white people. In Kurirr-Kurrir the two travelling spirits see where the bodies were burned, and they compose a song about the people who were massacred' (ibid p.30).