UNTITLED (SANDHILL TRAVELLING DREAMING), 1972

Important Australian Aboriginal Art
Melbourne
30 March 2022
16

MICK NAMARARI TJAPALTJARRI

(c.1926 - 1998)
UNTITLED (SANDHILL TRAVELLING DREAMING), 1972

synthetic polymer paint on composition board 

54.0 x 46.5 cm

bears inscription verso: artist’s name, Stuart Art Centre cat. 1922 and cat. 00060/84

Estimate: 
$30,000 – $40,000
Sold for $61,364 (inc. BP) in Auction 68 - 30 March 2022, Melbourne
Provenance

Painted at Papunya in 1972
Stuart Art Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Private collection, Queensland
Private collection, Melbourne
Sotheby's, Melbourne, 24 June 2002, lot 244
Private collection, Melbourne 
 

Literature

O’Halloran, A. B., The Master from Marnpi: Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, LifeDesign Australia, Sydney, 2018, pp.172-173 pl. PS7.2 (illus.).


This work is accompanied by a letter from Geoffrey Bardon AM which states: ‘The circular forms, with internal dotting pattern, here represent stylised trees, bushes, grass plants, possibly the desert oak tree, unique to the Western Desert. This is part of a map landscape of Pintupi homelands of the Gibson Desert, Western Australia.

The arced network of vertical lines, linking circles (trees) top to bottom, with dotting patterns connecting the dotted circles, are stylised motifs for sandhills, of a landscape terrain west of Papunya, Kintore and further west.

The horizontal straight lines are a stylised pattern for the journey-travelling motif, and implies people foraging and hunting, crossing a landscape region in the artist's homeland. The pattern of circles, arcs and straight lines is a mind-map of the artist's place or homeland, known to him in intimate detail but here generalised without any sacred/secret signs or symbols. The dotting represents the grass, earth and bush tucker in sandhills, and simultaneously the prepared ground for a ceremony of this dreaming story.'