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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Unidentified Artist likely Tommy Lowery Tjapaltjarri, Archetypal Pintupi Ceremonial Dreaming [formerly Untitled], 1971

Unidentified Artist likely Tommy Lowery Tjapaltjarri

Archetypal Pintupi Ceremonial Dreaming [formerly Untitled], 1971
Synthetic polymer paint and natural earth pigments and polyvinyl acetate on composition board
8 15/16 x 2 7/8 inches (22.7 x 7.3 cm)
Photo: Tony De Camillo for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University
Pintupi Language Group
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Provenance

Purchased by Mr. and Mrs. W.L Jackson, (teachers at the Papunya School, early 1972)

Sotheby’s Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 28 June, 1999, lot 55

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

Sotheby’s, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 28 June, 1999, p. 48

Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink, Papunya Tula: Genesis And Genius, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000, p. 12, 288

Roger Benjamin, Fred Meyers, Vivien Johnson, et al., Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya, The Herbert F Johnson Museum, Cornell University, 2009, p.83
(Forward written by John and Barbara Wilkerson)

Given the similarity in execution and materials, it seems likely this small board was also the work of Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri.

A diagram and annotation was provided by Geoffrey Bardon for the 1999 sale. On the diagram drawn by Frank Slip and signed by Bardon is the remark: “Painted on scrap wood–Geoff Bardon’s Art Room, Papunya, Sept. 1971.” On the verso of the diagram, Bardon notes: “The emerging design motifs for ceremonial men as a U shape, journey line and sitdown places are all apparent. It reveals the ceremonial positions for a dreaming map and is similar to ceremonial signs or motifs in actual images, on traditional objects here transposed to hardwood.” (Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya, p. 82)

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Related artworks
  • Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri, Pintupi Medicine Dreaming [formerly Medicine Story], 1972
    Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri, Pintupi Medicine Dreaming [formerly Medicine Story], 1972
  • Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri, Three Corroboree Poles [formerly untitled], 1971
    Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri, Three Corroboree Poles [formerly untitled], 1971
  • Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri, Ngalyukuntinya, 1985
    Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri, Ngalyukuntinya, 1985

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