Lot 64: Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri circa 1935-1987 OLD MAN STORY synthetic polymer paint and natural earth pigments on composition board

bears the number 44, date (26.9.72) and Stuart Art Centre consignment number 19071 on the reverse synthetic polymer paint and natural earth pigments on composition board

61 by 46cm

Geoffrey Bardon and James Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press, 2004, p.409, illus., painting 370. Bardon attributes this work to Charlie Tararu Tjungurrayi. However, the original Stuart Art Centre certificate clearly attributes the painting to Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri.

Painted at Papunya in 1972
Consignment 19, painting number 71 to the Stuart Art Centre, Alice Springs
Private collection

Cf. For similar paintings see Man and Water Dreaming, 1972, and Woman's Dreaming, 1972, in Bardon and Bardon, 2004, p.192, painting number 98, and p.367, painting number 317, respectively. For paintings showing undecorated ground mosaics by the artist see Mitukatjirri, 1972, in Wally Caruana, Aboriginal Art, London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003, illus. p.116, pl.96, and Ceremonial Dreaming, 1972, illustrated in Bardon and Bardon, 2004, at p.409, painting 369.

The work depicts the design of a sand painting or mosaic being made by senior men for a ceremony on a flattened piece of earth. The men are represented as U-shapes at various points in the painting, adjacent to the large red ovoid shapes which form the basis of the ceremonial painting. The men's fireplaces are shown as sets of concentric circles. The jagged line framing the composition refers to water.

The unusual feature of this work is the depiction of undecorated elements of the ground painting. According to Bardon (2004:409), the artist was acutely aware of 'the need to exclude sacred-secret material', and as a result the design of the ritual ground painting is rendered in outline only.

This painting is sold with the original Stuart Art Centre certificate bearing a label with the artist's name, title and catalogue number 19071.