Lot 19: BEN TIPUNGWUTI, (c.1916 – 1979), UNTITLED (TIWI FIGURE), c.1960, natural earth pigments, resin and hair on carved ironwood

BEN TIPUNGWUTI, (c.1916 – 1979), UNTITLED (TIWI FIGURE), c.1960, natural earth pigments, resin and hair on carved ironwood

DIMENSIONS:
62.0 cm height

PROVENANCE:
Created at Nguiu, Bathurst Island
Stephen Kellner Gallery, Sydney
Private collection, Sydney
Sotheby's, Melbourne, 24 July 2007, lot 75
The Luczo Family Collection, USA

This work was originally sold with a copy of a letter from Brother John Pye, the Head of St Therese’s Mission on Nguiu, Bathurst Island written in 1977, whereby he identified the carving as ‘definitely’ by Ben Tipungwuti, from an earlier period in time. In the letter he recounts how the first figurative carvings were created on Bathurst Island in 1952 and that the decoration is representative of body markings, reflecting the artist’s tribal skin group.