Lot 29: Munggurrawuy Yunupingu circa 1907-1979 UNTITLED natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

147 by 61.5cm

Painted at Yirrkala circa 1972
Private collection

Cf. For a closely related painting see The Eagle Hawk Men and the Flying Fox People, 1967, in H.M. Groger-Wurm, Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings and their Mythological Interpretation: Vol.1, Eastern Arnhem Land, Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1973, pp.125-126, pl.192; see also The Bandicoot Spirits, c.1958, in M.A. O'Ferrall, Keepers of the Secrets: Aboriginal Art from Arnhem Land in the Collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth: Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1990, p.105, pl.121, illus.

The narrative relates to an ancestral ritual performed by the Flying Fox People of the Yirritja moiety, that of the artist, and the Eagle Hawk Men of the Dhuwa moiety, in eastern Arnhem Land. All the performers in the ceremony metamorphose into animal forms, chief among these being the kangaroo Garrtjambal, and emus and goannas. Garrtjambal is depicted with the ancestral hero Gambulabula holding a sacred didjeridu or stick. In the lower register of the painting, a mortuary ceremony is taking place with the musicians depicted in the lower right. The yellow scallops in the top right of the painting represent sandhills.