Artist Unidentified
Provenance
The Artist, painted September 1971
Purchased by Mr. and Mrs. W. L Jackson (teachers at the Papunya School), Alice Springs, Northern Territory, 1972
Sotheby’s, Melbourne, Important Aboriginal Art, 28 June 1999, lot 54
Collection of John and Barbara Wilkerson, New York
Exhibitions
Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 18 August - 12 November 2000
Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya, The Herbert F Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 10 January - 5 April 2009; Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, 3 May - 2 August, 2009; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, 1 September - 5 December, 2009
Abstraction & the Dreaming: Aboriginal Paintings from Australia’s Western Desert (1971 – Present), Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Utah, 11 September - 12 December 2015
Publications
Benjamin, Roger, Fred Myers, Vivien Johnson, et al. Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya. Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, 2009.
Perkins, Hetti, and Hannah Fink. Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius. Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000, pp. 12, 288.
Sotheby's. Important Aboriginal Art. Melbourne, 28 June 1999, p. 48.
The Sotheby’s catalogue entry notes: “At the time [the Jacksons] were informed by Geoffrey Bardon that this painting was ‘special’ as it was ‘a very early example’ and ‘done in ochre,’” On the documentation provided by Geoffrey Bardon he wrote: “A sand painting pattern of linked concentric circles where vertical and straight lines represent a journey with horizontal bar sign, a motif in body decoration, and also a water mark for a ceremony.” (Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya, p. 83)