Story of two brothers, 1983

Important Australian Indigenous Art
Melbourne
25 March 2026
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© Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri/Copyright Agency 2026
34

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

(c.1932 - 2002)
Story of two brothers, 1983

synthetic polymer paint on linen

182.0 x 120.0 cm

bears inscription verso: cat. RG2483

Estimate: 
$70,000 – $90,000
Provenance

Commissioned by Hinton Lowe and painted at Mbunghara (50 kilometres east of Papunya) in 1983
The Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
Sotheby's, Melbourne, 30 June 1997, lot 56
Private collection, Sydney
Sotheby's, Sydney, 25 November 2007, lot 54
Private collection, Melbourne

Literature

Johnson, V., The Art of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Gordon and Breach International, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1994, p. 94, pl. 35 (illus.)

Related works

Bush Fire Dreaming, 1982, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 82.0 x 102.5 cm, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

This painting was originally sold with accompanying documentation that read:

'This painting tells of the flight of two brothers (Tjampitjinpa) from a fire raised by an elder relative Tjangala in punishment for a transgression of law. A willy-willy drove the fire in pursuit of the young men through country around Karinyarra (Mt. Wedge) and eventually consumed them. This fate is not depicted in this painting because it did not occur in the area represented. Tracks of wallaby and possum dreaming paths traverse the flight path of the young men. Black and grey areas represent charred vegetation and smoke; red and yellow depict the fire and spinifex respectively.'

Catalogue text

Born at Napperby Station, north-west of Alice Springs, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri did not attend school and worked as a stockman from late boyhood. He began carving in his late teens and had already established a reputation as a highly skilled craftsman when the Papunya painting movement emerged in 1971. One of the last artists to join Geoffrey Bardon’s group of painters, he enrolled in February 1972 under the encouragement of Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri.

An innovative artist, Clifford Possum experimented with combining traditional iconography and Western European pictorial perspectives, as demonstrated in this deceptively literal painting. Story of Two Brothers, 1983 depicts part of the first episode of the great Fire Dreaming, which he represented in its entirety in Warlugulong, 1977, now held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. The story recounts how two brothers of the Tjampitjinpa skin group are punished by their father, Lungkata – the Blue-Tongue Lizard – for failing to share their kangaroo catch. In anger, Lungkata sets fire to the land, and the flames pursue the young men to Kerrinyarra (Mt Wedge), where they are ultimately overcome.

This work traces the brothers’ footprints as they flee the advancing fire, alongside the tracks of the Wallaby and Possum ancestors whose Dreaming paths they cross. The landscape is rendered as a patchwork of red and yellow cluster – symbolising fire and spinifex – encircled by black and grey areas that evoke scorched earth and smoke. This patchwork composition became a defining feature of Clifford Possum’s later practice and influenced many of his contemporaries.
 
CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE