Catalogues144 of 257
Click to enlargeSale 2 · Lot 51
c.1945 – 2021
- Region
- Eastern Desert
- Community
- Mulga Bore (Akaye Soakage)
- Language group
- Anmatyerr (Anmatyerre) – Eastern Anmatyerre
Awely(e) (Ceremonial Body Paint Design), 1991
79 x 79 cm
Est. $1,200 – $1,800
Hammer $1,800
- Provenance
- Mulga Bore Artists, Utopia, NT, Cat No. 79-791 The Australia Gallery (formerly the A Gallery), New York (David Betz) Private Collection, Albany NY
- Artwork story
- This early Awely(e) translates ceremonial bodypaint designs into a radiating field of arcs and dotted striations. Painted in 1991, it belongs to the formative years of Petyarr(e)’s practice, when Utopia artists moved from batik to acrylic painting. The composition anticipates the artist’s Mountain Devil Lizard canvasses and later celebrated “leaf” series, and demonstrates her ability to transform ceremonial mark-making into a refined optical abstraction.