MARDAYIN AT MANKARRARD, 2004

Important Australian Indigenous Art
Melbourne
22 March 2023
34

JOHN MAWURNDJUL

born 1952
MARDAYIN AT MANKARRARD, 2004

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus tetrodonta bark

206.0 x 74.0 cm (irregular)

bears inscription on label verso: artist's name, subject, medium, size, language group and Maningrida Arts and Culture cat. 1982–04

Estimate: 
$40,000 – $60,000
Sold for $55,227 (inc. BP) in Auction 73 - 22 March 2023, Melbourne
Provenance

Commissioned by Maningrida Arts and Culture, Northern Territory in 2004 (label attached verso)
Annandale Galleries, Sydney
The Laverty Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in October 2004

Exhibited

John Mawurndjul, New paintings, bark paintings & ceremonial poles from Maningrida, Arnhem Land, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, 27 September – 30 October 2004 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, p. 11 and illus. on front cover of exhibition invitation)
John Mawurndjul: I am the Old and the New, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 6 July – 23 September 2018; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 26 October 2018 – 28 January 2019

Literature

Beyond Sacred: Australian Aboriginal Art: The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne, 2008, pp. 277 (illus.), 341
Beyond Sacred: Australian Aboriginal Art: The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, edition II, Kleimeyer Industries Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 2011, pp. 318 (illus.), 391
Altman, J., et al., John Mawurndjul: I am the Old and the New, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2018, pp. 110 (illus.), 378
 
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity attached verso from Maningrida Arts and Culture which states:
 
This work by the artist concerns a major patrimoiety ceremony of a secret and sacred nature called ‘Mardayin’. Much of the meaning of the iconography in the painting is not in the domain of public knowledge and so it cannot be explained in detail here. The painting refers to a site, Mankarrard, which is a billabong in Dangkorlo clan estate in the Mann River region.

Mankarrard is associated with the site of Kakodbebuldi, ‘a yirridjdja moiety place of the Darnkolo clan. There is the billabong at Kakodbebuldi with the dangarrk lights from the Mardayin ceremony and where they gather the Trophis scandens vine for making conical fish traps.’1

1. The artist quoted in John Mawurndjul, I am the Old and the New, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2018, p. 99