Kundaagi Kangaroo, c.1969

natural earth pigments on bark

50 x 86 cm

Est. $3,000 – $5,000

Hammer $3,800

Provenance: Bush Aid Society, Cat No. O637 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Lawson Menzies, Aboriginal Art Auction, Sydney, NSW, 23 May 2006, Lot 72 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Lawson Menzies
Artwork story: Spider Namirrki Nabunu was a pivotal figure among the early Oenpelli bark painters, working from Kunbarlanja in Western Arnhem Land. A Bulardja clan man of Yiminy country, his early work centred on the Mimih Dreaming, the elongated spirit beings of the stone country escarpment. His later barks, of which Kundaagi Kangaroo is an example, turned to the faunal subjects of his country, rendered with the fluency of an artist who had spent his life in that landscape. The kundaagi, the antilopine kangaroo of the Arnhem Land escarpment, fills the bark in confident profile, its body divided into distinct anatomical sections in the x-ray tradition of western Arnhem Land painting. Each section is rendered in deep red-brown with fine diagonal striping in cream and white, separated by lines of white dot-work that trace the skeleton and internal structure of the animal. The chest carries a warm gold-ochre triangular form. A dotted line runs along the spine. The pale ground of the bark serves as the background, lending the composition an austere, luminous quality. The forepaws are rendered with careful attention, the ears erect. Namirrki died in 1973, the year the bark painting market was beginning to find its international footing. This work, dating to around 1969, was acquired through the Bush Aid Society before passing into the collection from which it is now offered.

Catalogues154 of 257

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Sale 3 · Lot 6

Spider Namirriki Nabunu

c.1924 – 1973

Region: Arnhem Land
Community: Gunbalanya (Oenpelli, Kunbarllanjnja)
Language group: Kunwinjku

Kundaagi Kangaroo, c.1969

natural earth pigments on bark

50 x 86 cm

Est. $3,000 – $5,000

Hammer $3,800

Provenance: Bush Aid Society, Cat No. O637 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Lawson Menzies, Aboriginal Art Auction, Sydney, NSW, 23 May 2006, Lot 72 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Lawson Menzies
Artwork story: Spider Namirrki Nabunu was a pivotal figure among the early Oenpelli bark painters, working from Kunbarlanja in Western Arnhem Land. A Bulardja clan man of Yiminy country, his early work centred on the Mimih Dreaming, the elongated spirit beings of the stone country escarpment. His later barks, of which Kundaagi Kangaroo is an example, turned to the faunal subjects of his country, rendered with the fluency of an artist who had spent his life in that landscape. The kundaagi, the antilopine kangaroo of the Arnhem Land escarpment, fills the bark in confident profile, its body divided into distinct anatomical sections in the x-ray tradition of western Arnhem Land painting. Each section is rendered in deep red-brown with fine diagonal striping in cream and white, separated by lines of white dot-work that trace the skeleton and internal structure of the animal. The chest carries a warm gold-ochre triangular form. A dotted line runs along the spine. The pale ground of the bark serves as the background, lending the composition an austere, luminous quality. The forepaws are rendered with careful attention, the ears erect. Namirrki died in 1973, the year the bark painting market was beginning to find its international footing. This work, dating to around 1969, was acquired through the Bush Aid Society before passing into the collection from which it is now offered.