Merryn Schriever
Managing Director, Australia
Lot 19
Timmy Payungka Tjapangati(circa 1933-2000)Big Corroboree, 1972
14 November 2018, 18:00 AEDT
Sydney, WoollahraAU$30,000 - AU$50,000
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Alex Clark
Head of Sale, Senior Specialist
Timmy Payungka Tjapangati (circa 1933-2000)
Big Corroboree, 1972
synthetic polymer paint on composition board
60.0 x 45.0cm (23 5/8 x 17 11/16in).
synthetic polymer paint on composition board
60.0 x 45.0cm (23 5/8 x 17 11/16in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Stuart Art Centre, Alice Springs
Mr Timothy Guthrie, acquired from the above in 1972
Sotheby's, Melbourne, 30 June 1997, lot 20
Private collection, Melbourne
EXHIBITED
Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 September 2011 - 12 February 2012; then touring to Musée du quai Branly, Paris, 9 October 2012 - 20 January 2013 (label attached verso)
LITERATURE
Judith Ryan, Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2011, p. 196 (illus.)
Like Long Jack Phillipus, Timmy Payungka Tjapangati was one of the first members of the men's painting group at Papunya. However, his regular travels between Papunya and Balgo to visit relatives, resulted in extended hiatuses from painting for the market. A deeply ceremonial man, Payungka was also a keen carver of ceremonial boards and often undertook this activity with his close friend Freddy West, particularly in the early 70s when painting materials were often in limited supply. 1
John Kean aptly described Tjapangati as 'a highly individual painter among the Pintupi artists – figuration played a large part in his earlier works, with depictions of animals and people, their tracks and associated ceremonial detail. In the middle phase of his artistic development, while conforming to Pintupi conventions, his painting was character-ised by compositional complexity and the use of unconventional chromatic and tonal arrangements.'2
According to the original Stuart Art Centre documentation, this painting depicts a big Corroboree with men gathered with their sacred objects (tjuringas) and suggests that it is a corroboree relating to the appointment of an executioner (Kadaitcha). The tracks entering the frame from each corner are those of the kangaroo or wallaby ancestors.
1. Vivien Johnson, Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists, IAD Press, Alice Springs, 2008, p. 49
2. John Kean in Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2014, p. 156