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Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri
Big Cave Dreaming with Ceremonial Object [formerly Untitled], 1972Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board
35 ⅞ x 25 ⅛ inches (91.12 x 63.82 cm)
Photo: Tony De Camillo for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell UniversityPintupi Language Group Provenance
The Artist, painted at Papunya, Northern Territory
Purchased from the artist at Papunya by a visiting Adelaide theater director, late 1972
Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 28 June, 1999, lot 102
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
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
Everywhen: The External Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 5 February - 18 September 2016
Australian Consulate-General New York, Official Consul General Residence, New York, 5 October 2021 - 20 October 2022
60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, New York, May 2023
Publications
Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 28 June, 1999, p. 80
Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink, Papunya Tula: Genesis And Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales: Sydney, 2000, p.39, 283 (illus.)
Benjamin, Roger, review of Papunya Tula: Genius and Genesis, in Humanities Research no. 1, 2000 (cover illus.)
Geoffrey Bardon and James Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, The Miegunyah Press: Melbourne, 2004, p. 444, painting 415
Vanessa Merlino and Luke Scholes, 60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, 2023 (illus.)
Fred Myers and Terry Smith, Six Paintings from Papunya: A Conversation, Duke University Press: Durham, 2024
Thomas Connors, The Magazine Antiques, Cultural Crossings, July/August 2025, p. 130 - 141
Related artworks-
![Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Yam Traveling in the Sandhills (Version 2) [formerly Bush Tucker Story], 1971](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Yam Traveling in the Sandhills (Version 2) [formerly Bush Tucker Story], 1971 -
Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Water Dreaming, 1972
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Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Tjunginpa, 1991
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Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Old Man’s Dreamings, 1972
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![Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Big Cave Dreaming with Ceremonial Object [formerly Untitled], 1972](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-twocollections/usr/images/artworks/main_image/items/37/3788543d4a8d456a97b9380140359bf0/cat32_mntjapaltjarri.jpg)
![Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Yam Traveling in the Sandhills (Version 2) [formerly Bush Tucker Story], 1971](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-twocollections/usr/images/artworks/main_image/items/94/94a2cac15740419199ccf49f0d84c604/cat11_mntjapaltjarri-1-.jpg)
