Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa

Mikanji [formerly Untitled], 1971

Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board

36 x 35 ⅞ inches (91.44 x 91.12 cm)

Anmatyerr, Warlpiri and Arrernte Language Groups (This image is considered Secret/Sacred)

Provenance

The Artist, painted October 1971

R.C. (Dick) Kimber, acquired at the first exhibition of Papunya paintings in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, October 1971

Sotheby’s, Melbourne, Important Aboriginal Art, 29 June 1998, lot 21

Collection of John and Barbara Wilkerson, New York

Exhibitions

Dot and Circle, A Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Paintings of Central Australia, RMIT University Gallery, Melbourne, 16 April - 3 May 1985, (Cat 1)

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

Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art, The Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 30 September 2011- 12 February 2012; Musee du quai Branly, Paris, France, 9 October 2012- 20 January 2013

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

Johnson, Vivien. Dreamings of the Desert: Aboriginal Dot Paintings of the Western Desert. 1998, p. 19.

Kimber, Richard. "Papunya Tula: Artists of Central and Western Deserts of Australia." Australian Art Review, edited by Leon Paroissien. Warner Associates, 1982, pp. 122–125.

Maughan, Janet, Jenny Zimmer, et al. Dot and Circle: A Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Painting of Central Australia. Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 1986, cat. 1, pp. 9, 59 (illus.)

Sotheby's. Important Aboriginal Art. Melbourne, 29 June 1998, p. 21.

Sotheby's. Important Aboriginal Art. Sydney, 20 October 2008, pp. 101–102.

"An October 1971 work, (it is) believed to be one of the first six paintings offered for sale in Alice Springs. An initial design, very largely obliterated when water was used to smear and remove it, exists as a ghost outline in the background. Centrally placed is a set of concentric circles in orange, white and green. All other design elements are symmetrically arranged about these circles and towards the edge of the board, and a further colour, yellow, is employed. The mirror-image designs are two bull roarers and two ceremonial poles standing up from depictions of ground paintings (all secret-sacred elements), two snakes, two sets of geometric designs and, across the base, a line of kangaroo tracks." (Zimmer and Maughan, Dot and Circle: A Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Painting of Central Australia, p. 59)

Related artworks

Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa, Ngalyilpi (A Small Snake), 1972
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are respectfully advised this image is considered secret/sacred view work
Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa, Budgerigar Dreaming (Version 1) [formerly Budgerigar Dreaming], 1972

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies

Reject non essential