Wally Mandarrk (1915 - 1987)

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

91.0 x 48.0 cm (irregular)
112.5 x 69.0 x 10.0 cm

Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Northern Territory
The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, Melbourne, acquired from the above on 20 April 1994

Celestial Earth, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria, 19 November 2011 – 4 March 2012
National Treasures, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria, 14 November 2015 – 13 March 2016

Nainby, B., Stanhope, Z., and Furlonger, K., The Cbus Collection of Australian Art, in association with Latrobe Regional Gallery, Melbourne, 2009, p. 225

This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery

Condition:
This work is in very good, stable and near original condition.
There are a small number of vertical hairline surface cracks at the top and bottom edges. There are minor, light surface abrasions to the bark support with minor loss of pigment to small areas in the left lung fish, the fish to the top edge and the neck and legs of the larger central emu.
These are old, stable, characteristic of the medium and age of the work, are not visually distracting and visible in the enlarged online catalogue image.
The work is attached with clear plastic clips to a hessian lined backboard, housed in a custom, dark timber box frame under protective Perspex.