Lot 19: Waidjung 1916-deceased BARU, THE CROCODILE natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

bears descriptive label on the reverse identifying the artist, moiety, and story depicted natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

90 by 38cm

Painted in North East Arnhem Land in 1948
Collected at Yirrkala on the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land
Charles P. Mountford
Harold L. Sheard, South Australia; thence by descent

Cf. For related images by Yolngu artists and discussion of the subject matter, see C. P. Mountford, Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, volume 1: Art, Myth and Symbolism, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1956, pp.366-370.

Baru created the original Fire during an initiation ceremony in ancestral times. The Fire spread out to sea, and across the land. The setting in this painting is Biranybirany on the eastern coast of Arnhem Land, on Caledon Bay. Here, freshwater meets salt - a multivalent and powerful symbol in Yolngu cosmology, often associated with fertility. The painting depicts Baru, the larger of the two crocodiles, and a female, approaching eachother through the spike rushes in the swamp at Biranybirany. The linked diamonds are the Gumatj clan pattern representing fire. The composition is a template for depictions of similar episodes at related locations; for examples at Blue Mud Bay, south of Biranybirany, painted in 1967 by Waidjung, see H.M. Groger-Wurm, Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings and their Mythological Interpretation: Vol.1, Eastern Arnhem Land, Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1973, pp.82-85, pls.111 and 112; and another by Munggurrawuy Yunupingu, in R.M. and C.H. Berndt, The Art of Arnhem Land: The Art Gallery of Western Australia, December 1957-January 1958, Perth: Festival of Perth Committee, 1957, p.10.