Flying Snake Dreaming, 1991

130 x 85 cm

Est. $2,000 – $3,000

Hammer $1,600

Provenance: Corbally Stourton Contemporary Art Ltd, London, Cat No. CSCA62 Private Collection, Albany NY EXHIBITED TransArt Exhibition, Art Cologne, curated by Jeane Freifrau von Oppenheim, 1993
Artwork story: Tony Tjakamarra was a pioneering member of the Papunya Tula Artists, whose paintings mapped ancestral narratives through rhythmic fields of dots and concentric motifs. This work bears the hallmarks of Tjakamarra’s mature style: a pared-down palette, confident line, and compositions that balance monumentality with intimacy. The work embodies the artist’s assured handling of Pintupi iconography. The snaking black forms, edged with pulsating dots in ochre and white, trace the sinuous journeys of ancestral serpents across desert landscapes. The painting’s concentric roundels mark significant sites, creating a visual rhythm that oscillates evoking both country and ceremony. Its exhibition history through Corbally Stourton in London and at TransArt in Cologne reflects the growing international recognition of Western Desert art in the early 1990s, situating Tjakamarra within a broader trajectory of global modernism.

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Sale 2 · Lot 15

Tony Tjakamarra

b. c.1938

130 x 85 cm

Est. $2,000 – $3,000

Hammer $1,600

Provenance: Corbally Stourton Contemporary Art Ltd, London, Cat No. CSCA62 Private Collection, Albany NY EXHIBITED TransArt Exhibition, Art Cologne, curated by Jeane Freifrau von Oppenheim, 1993
Artwork story: Tony Tjakamarra was a pioneering member of the Papunya Tula Artists, whose paintings mapped ancestral narratives through rhythmic fields of dots and concentric motifs. This work bears the hallmarks of Tjakamarra’s mature style: a pared-down palette, confident line, and compositions that balance monumentality with intimacy. The work embodies the artist’s assured handling of Pintupi iconography. The snaking black forms, edged with pulsating dots in ochre and white, trace the sinuous journeys of ancestral serpents across desert landscapes. The painting’s concentric roundels mark significant sites, creating a visual rhythm that oscillates evoking both country and ceremony. Its exhibition history through Corbally Stourton in London and at TransArt in Cologne reflects the growing international recognition of Western Desert art in the early 1990s, situating Tjakamarra within a broader trajectory of global modernism.