Lot 42: JARINYANU DAVID DOWNS

CIRCA 1925-1995
UNTITLED C.1983

UNTITLED C.1983

119 by 120 cm

Bears artist's name on the reverse

Natural earth pigments and synthetic polymer paint on composition board

PROVENANCE

Emerald Hill Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne

NOTE

The painting depicts men and women performing Wakaya, a dance with a wide geographic distribution from central Northern Territory west to La Grange in Western Australia. The artist has depicted the women sitting down for compositional reasons, however they actually participate in the dance. Wakaya features the use of boomerangs as rhythm sticks. These are depicted in the hands of the dancing figures at each end of the line: one boomerang is Jarungarr or the curved returning boomerang used in combat, the other Waraka, is used for hunting kangaroos. The men are depicted wearing long headdresses, body paint designs and pearlshell pubic covers

Cf. For a related painting by the artist, see Jilji (sandhill country), 1983, in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, illustrated in Ryan, J. and K. Akerman (eds.), Images of Power: Aboriginal art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1993, p.85, illus