Lot 71: YALA YALA GIBBS TJUNGURRAYI 1928-1992

DREAMING JOURNEY 1971

MEASUREMENTS

30.5 by 30.5 cm

Synthetic polymer paint on composition board

PROVENANCE
Painted at Papunya September 1971 Private collection, New South Wales
LITERATURE
Bardon, G. and J. Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2004, p.122, painting number 50, illus. Cf. For early paintings by the artist see; Bardon, G., Papunya Tula: Art of the Western Desert, Mcphee Gribble, Melbourne, 1991; Mellor, D. and V. Megaw (eds.), Twenty-Five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting, Flinders University Press, Adelaide, 1999; Perkins, H. and H. Fink (eds.), Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales in association with Papunya Tula Artists, Sydney, 2000; and Ryan, J., Mythscapes: Aboriginal Art of the Desert from the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1989 A similar but larger version of this typical Pintupi design (illustrated below), entitled 'Epic Journey', 1972, by an anonymous Pintupi artist, most probably Yala Yala Gibbs, was collected by Peter Fannin at Papunya and is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia In the very early days of the Papunya painting movement, artists sought any available portable surface on which to paint, 'such was their enthusiasm' (Bardon and Bardon 2004, p.122). In the winter of 1971 a number of houses in Papunya had had broken linoleum floor tiles replaced. The discarded tiles provided a ready source of painting support for the artists. The image in this work is a classic Pintupi map of country, featuring important sites depicted as roundels joined by lines of travel. This work depicts 46 specific, named places and the paths between the adjacent sites. The white dotting indicates the prepared ground on which a sand painting is made in a ceremony