Wandjina - Rain Spirits, 2001

120 x 160 cm

Est. $5,000 – $7,000

Hammer $3,600

Provenance: Narrangunny Arts, WA, Cat No. N-2108-LK Lawson Menzies, Aboriginal Fine Art, 2005, Lot No. 205 Private Collection, NSW
Artwork story: Lily was born near the Prince Regent River and is the last of a generation of fully initiated artists who painted Wandjina on cave walls and canvas. In her refined style, she paints these spirits with the distinctive pointy shoulders of her particular cave area, often accompanied by totemic animals and ceremonial figures. Wandjina are powerful creator ancestors and fertility spirits who bring the monsoon rain to the Kimberley each year, thereby ensuring the health and well being of all its inhabitants. Large eyes dominate in a mouthless face, sometimes on top of a simple robe-like body, or with limbs and feet (as in this work). Radiating lines around the eyes or in a halo around the head represent the lightning that heralds the storm. The earliest images transferred from rock to bark were created at the request of early missionaries and explorers during the 1930s, after the Benedictine mission was established. The missionaries had displaced Lily's Wanambal people from their traditional lands, and disrupted their way of life, including the regular re-touching of the Wandjina at important cave sites.

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Sale 1 · Lot 18

b. c.1937

120 x 160 cm

Est. $5,000 – $7,000

Hammer $3,600

Provenance: Narrangunny Arts, WA, Cat No. N-2108-LK Lawson Menzies, Aboriginal Fine Art, 2005, Lot No. 205 Private Collection, NSW
Artwork story: Lily was born near the Prince Regent River and is the last of a generation of fully initiated artists who painted Wandjina on cave walls and canvas. In her refined style, she paints these spirits with the distinctive pointy shoulders of her particular cave area, often accompanied by totemic animals and ceremonial figures. Wandjina are powerful creator ancestors and fertility spirits who bring the monsoon rain to the Kimberley each year, thereby ensuring the health and well being of all its inhabitants. Large eyes dominate in a mouthless face, sometimes on top of a simple robe-like body, or with limbs and feet (as in this work). Radiating lines around the eyes or in a halo around the head represent the lightning that heralds the storm. The earliest images transferred from rock to bark were created at the request of early missionaries and explorers during the 1930s, after the Benedictine mission was established. The missionaries had displaced Lily's Wanambal people from their traditional lands, and disrupted their way of life, including the regular re-touching of the Wandjina at important cave sites.