Lot 28: Yirawala 1903 - 1976 UNTITLED natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

bears artist's name and catalogue number 38 on the reverse natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

51.5 by 26.5cm

Likely to have been painted at Minjilang (Croker Island), Western Arnhem Land circa 1970
Private collection

Cf. For similar images of sorcery figures collected by Karel Kupka, see Mimih, man and woman, 1960, and Mimih or sorcery figure, c.1963, in the collections of the Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland, and the National Gallery of Australia respectively, in Hetti Perkins (ed.), Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2004, pp.54, 55, illus.

The artist has depicted a victim of sorcery. Stingray barbs are shown inserted into the joints to metaphorically inflict pain on the subject, usually a person who has broken the rules of marriage. Such images are relatively rare as Christian missionaries in the communities of western Arnhem Land prohibited these depictions in an effort to prevent the practice of sorcery. Nonetheless, paintings of this genre were often made at the request of anthropologists and researchers.