Lot 109: DARBY JAMPIJINPA ROSS 1905-2005

LIWIRRINGKI JUKURRPA (BURROWING SKINK DREAMING) 1995

MEASUREMENTS

183 by 61 cm

Bears artist's name and Warlukurlangu Artists catalogue number 10/95 on the reverse
Synthetic polymer paint on linen

PROVENANCE
Painted in 1995 for Warlukurlangu Artists, Yuendumu S.O.F.A., Chicago Private collection, USA
EXHIBITED
S.O.F.A (Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art), Chicago, USA, November 1995 Cf. For a related painting in a similar style see 'Liwirringki Jukurrpa (Burrowing Skink Dreaming)', 1989, in Birnie Dankzer, J.A., Dreamings Tjukurrpa ? Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert: The Donald Kahn Collection, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, and Prestel-Verlag, New York, 1994, plate 25, illus.; for an earlier related painting see 'Burrowing Skink Dreaming at Parrikirlangu', 1986, in Sutton, P. (ed.), Dreamings. The Art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries in association with George Braziller / Viking, New York, 1988, p.104, fig.144/cat.39, illus.; two other paintings by the artist in a similar style, 'Parmapardu Jukurrpa (Flying Ant Dreaming)', both from 1992, are in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia Darby Ross was one of the great elders of the Warlpiri community at Yuendumu. The Northern Territory government records show that he was born in 1905 and he passed away exactly 100 years later in Alice Springs; a century in which he witnessed the extraordinary changes wrought by the advent of Europeans to the western deserts, including the infamous Coniston massacre of 1928 which he survived. Ross was one of the main participants when Warlpiri men at Yuendumu started painting for the public domain in the mid-1980s. His work is in major public and private collections in Australia and overseas, including the new Musée du quai Branly in Paris This painting is sold with a certificate together with accompanying documentation from Warlukurlangu Artists, Yuendumu.The certificate reads; 'Wilyangarni is a soakage at Yararlu. A fire was lit there to flush out Liwirringki. They all ran west through places shown here. There were so many they left streams of dust behind them (multiple vertical lines - single lines represent tail tracks). Men were waiting with clubs to kill Liwirringki for food. They were nearly all killed by the time they got to Mikanji (south of Pikilyi). This is where the last of them finished up. One Jampijinpa died at Kurrkaraparnta (this was his name also - Darby's warringiyi) he was from Warntungurru. There are two parrallel stories here. One belonging to Jampijinpa/Jangala men. The concentric circles represent the sites where Liwirrinki have been. (From top to bottom) They are Muliji (water soakage), Parnmaparnta (rockhole), Ngarlkirdiparnta (claypans), Yirdijirdiji (claypan), Ngalyipiparnta (water soakages), Warrulypartna (water soakages), Munjaparnta (rockhole), Ngarldindingki (cave), Parlpinparnta (water soakages) and Kurrkarparnta'