Lot 70: JARINYANU DAVID DOWNS (1925-1995)

Dance of Kurtal signed 'David Downs/jorijonu'(sic) (on the reverse); titled 'Dance of Kurtal' on labels (affixed to the reverse) acrylic and ochres on linen 197.6 x 136.7 cm PROVENANCE Commissioned by Duncan Kentish, 1988 Bonython Meadmore Gallery, Sydney The Holmes … Court collection, Western Australia EXHIBITION Sydney, Bonython Meadmore Gallery, Jarinyanu David Downs, 18 August - 13 September 1988, cat. no. 22, illus. front cover NOTES Jarinyanu is from Wangkajunga country which lies in the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia. He was given the name David Downs by the European manager of the cattle station where he worked during his early twenties. Jarinyanu's artistic career began with his move to Fitzroy Crossing, a predominantly Aboriginal settlement north of Perth, in the late 1960s. In the catalogue essay for the 1988 exhibition at Bonython Meadmore Gallery, Duncan Kentish wrote extensively about both Kurtal and the painting Dance of Kurtal : "Kurtal is a Storm Being from the Ngarangarni - the Walmajarri word for the Dreaming... When Kurtal entered Jarinyanu's country he was nearing the end of his journey... Before a gathering of people from this area, Kurtal danced his final dance, metamorphosed into a snake, and sank into the earth where he remains today in a permanent rock-hole spring. This spring provided a reliable supply of water in all seasons, but in addition the old men would perform rituals at this site during the hot weather season to make Kurtal bring rain. The site is close to the place of Jarinyanu's birth, south from Lake Gregory and slightly to the east of the Canning Stock Route... He is held to be responsible for and present within those particularly dramatic storms that usher in the break of the rainy season... The cover painting (Dance of Kurtal) reveals Kurtal generating storms, with his arms and head enveloped in a cloud streaked with lightning and dust. A vertical snake motif suggests Kurtal's face is simultaneously the head of a snake, prefiguring his approaching metamorphosis. A band of cloud at his waist divides earth from sky. The lower section shows a grouping of women and girls and young boys. The women wear vertical-striped body paint while the boys are painted with a snake motif. Both paintings were painted in Adelaide in January, and Jarunyanu declared that the unusually rainy weather then experienced, had resulted from his invoking Kurtal in the first painting." (D Kentish, Jarinyanu David Downs, exhibition catalogue, Sydney, 1988, unpaginated) Kurtal was one of the dominant figures in Jarinyanu's paintings and elsewhere Kentish has referred to the Jakuli that Kurtal wears which is a pubic covering made of pearlshell that hangs from a hairstring belt.