Lot 79: SIMON TJAKAMARRA C. 1950-1990 ITTERULNYA

bears artist's name and Papunya Tula Artists catalogue number ST881246 on the reverse

182 BY 182CM

synthetic polymer paint on linen

Papunya Tula: Contemporary Paintings from Australia's Western Desert, John Weber Gallery, New York, May 25-June 17, 1989
Papunya Tula: Arte Aborigen Australiano, Centro Cultural / Arte Contemporaneo, A.C. Mexico , 1989

John Weber, Papunya Tula: Contemporary Paintings from Australia's Western Desert, New York: John Weber Gallery, 1989, p.22
R. Littman, Papunya Tula: Arte Aborigen Australiano, Mexico: Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporaneo, 1989, pl.31, cat.6

Painted in 1988
Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
John Weber Gallery, New York
Jacques and Emy Cohenca, New York
Private collection, Adelaide
Sotheby's, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 25 July 2005, lot 80
The Austcorp Group Limited Art Collection

Cf. A. Brody et al, Contemporary Aboriginal Art: The Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Perth: Heytesbury Holdings Ltd, 1990, p.57, pl.1.35; Brenda Croft, Indigenous Art: Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth: Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1989, p.37; H. Carroll et al, Sublime: Twenty Five Years of the Westfarmers Collection of Australian Art, Westfarmers Arts Ltd, 2003, p.72, cat. no. 67.

Simon Tjakamarra was the younger brother of Anatjari No.3 Tjakamarra and he produced a number of acclaimed large scale paintings in the 1980s, using a palette of black and 'golden ochre' paint. According to Perkins (Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink, Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000, p.181), Simon Tjakamarra's paintings 'evolved into a highly distinctive interpretation of the Tingari template' where his 'immaculate rendering of the design endows his works with a distinctive undulating rhythm'. These artists developed and refined the Pintupi style of paintings based on a series of linked roundels, stripped of other desert iconography such as the tracks of animals or humans, U-shapes and meandering lines.

This painting is sold with an accompanying Papunya Tula Artist's certificate.