Artist Profile for Mick Gill < Back Mick Gill Mick Gill ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE MICK GILL - ARTISTS'S COUNTRY SOLD AU$3,500.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Mick Gill ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

TjapaltjarriBilly Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri 1927 - 2015 From the outset, Billy Stockman was a vital figure in the Papunya art movement. He went on to become one of its most exceptional and productive figures, traveling the world as a representative of Aboriginal Culture and having his work exhibited and collected by major galleries and collectors. He stands at the transition point between the ancient and the new, his work providing a link that allows for an ongoing synthesis between cultural traditions and modern artistic practices. Essentially spiritual, the symbols that appear in his paintings are charged with authority and religious knowledge. They are grounded in the narratives of the traditional desert culture of which he is a senior custodian of particular sites and stories. Born of the Anmatyerre-Western Arrente people, at Ilpitirri, North-West of Papunya, Billy Stockman’s first experience of white people was the Coniston Massacre in 1928 at the age of two. 'All the people were running. I was a little one – in a coolamon. My mother hid me under a bush. My father had gone hunting. They killed my mother. I was grown up by her sister – Clifford Possum’s mother' (Stockman cited in Kleinert & Neal 2000: 702). Billy Stockman grew up at Napperby Station (200 km west of Alice Springs), where he was initiated and later worked as a stockman for many years. He was moved to Papunya as part of the government re-settlement program and lived on the edge of the somewhat chaotic settlement. He could often be seen there, repairing the old cars that were much valued by the new settlers, allowing them to journey back to their much-missed country. He had a large extended family and was, as Geoff Bardon described 'a man with many obligations to all' (2004: 85). Stockman also worked as a cook in the communal kitchens at Papunya and as a yards man at the Papunya School. It was this position that placed him so centrally within the mural painting endeavour that was to spark the explosion of creativity that became a modern painting movement. Along with Long Jack Phillipus, Billy Stockman assisted Kaapa Mbitjana in the painting of the Honey Ant Dreaming on the school walls in 1971. It was the culmination of a project initiated by art teacher Geoff Bardon and being a design of great power and relevance to all of the tribes of the Western Desert it generated much excitement and discussion through-out the settlement. The Honey Ant is the image of the ancestors, emerging from the ground, creating landforms while moving across it and finally returning underground, ever afterwards to be celebrated in story and ceremony. Because different tribal groups were crammed together at Papunya, it was a volatile environment and so it was important to produce designs that would not aggravate the reactive atmosphere. As the painting project continued to grow, Bardon says it was Billy Stockman in particular who understood the necessity of choosing un-controversial subjects such as food gathering or children’s stories. He communicated Bardon’s concerns to the steadily growing group of painting men who nevertheless had to regularly restrain a wish to paint more momentous subjects. As paintings began to sell in Alice Springs the demarcation between sacred and secular became clearer to the men and strategies were devised to avoid infringing tribal laws. The rules of production and reception in such intercultural transactions however continue to pose difficulties, as they still do for many indigenous cultures. Billy Stockman’s work was among the first to stir the purchasing public’s interest. He made a point of thanking Bardon personally and began to apply himself with great enthusiasm to painting. All of the men were greatly encouraged by the money received from the sale of their paintings. It was a way of improving the life of their families but also re-kindled a sense of self and community esteem among the men who had, to a degree, been estranged from their once important tribal positions. Senior men were instrumental in advising on symbols, stories and meanings during the creative process. Billy Stockman had a way of focusing on simple, self-contained vignettes. They often contained stylised, naturalistic plants and animals and a symmetry and decorative quality that appealed to buyers. This talent followed from his skill as an accomplished wood-carver. Like many stockmen, he had learned to whittle wood and as Bardon commented 'could turn a beanwood branch into two or three snakes in a complex inter-twining design' (2004: 31). As the art movement gathered momentum, his life as a stockman had also prepared him for negotiating with the world of the ‘whitefella’. Billy Stockman held many official positions, playing a critical role in the newly established Aboriginal Arts Board during the 1970’s and a stint as chairman of Papunya Tula Artists. He became a campaigner for the outstation movement and was one of the first to move to his own station at Illili, West of Papunya. Here, he continued painting his Dreamings and instructed younger artists on the ancient knowledge, in particular the Budgerigar, Water, Snake and Wild Potatoe Dreamings of his own country. He and his wife Intinika have two sons and two daughters, of whom one, Gillian, has also become a painter. Declining health brought about his retirement to the Hetti Perkins Hostel in Alice Springs. He remained an inspiring figure and authority for the Western Desert people until his death in 2015, a reliable, responsible and caring man who Bardon described as 'embodying all that was loving and trusting in traditional family life' (Bardon 2004: 85). When Sotheby’s set Billy Stockman’s record price of $201,500 (for the 54.5 x 46 cm 1971 board Wild Potato (Yala) Dreaming) in 1998, the result was second only to Johnny Warangkula’s Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa 1972( sold the previous year for $206,000, in the annuls of all Aboriginal art sales). It was still the fourth highest result ever achieved for an Aboriginal painting by the end of 2001, but 19th highest at the end of 2004 and the 34th by the end of 2006. Neverthelessm few artist’s record prices have lasted as long. Billy Stockman's next highest result is however only $36,000. This was achieved for a 1991 work entitled Travels of the Spider Ancestors (was sold by Lawson~Menzies in June 2008, Lot 262). It was a good result for a late career work by one of the early Papunya artists and justified the confidence Lawson~Menzies specialists had in it, evidenced by the presale estimate of $35,000-45,000. Brave of them, as all of the artists top ten results at the time were for 1971-1973 boards and apart from this spectacular exception nothing painted after 1978 had appeared in the artists 15 highest results or has generated more than $8,000 for its seller since. This very prolific artist, who created work for more than 30 years has had over 320 works offered for sale since his first paintings appeared at auction in 1988. Yet his career average price is just $5,055 despite a respectable clearance rate of 59%. While 1998 was by far his best year at sale with 16 of 17 works sold including his record price, 2005 was also a good year with 17 of 19 painting selling. This however was the last time Billy Stockman’s fortunes were on the ascendant. Since then his clearance rate has been under 50%. Only 13 paintings in total have sold for more than $10,000 and it is his low average price that has prevented Billy Stockman from attaining a higher place in the annuls of Aboriginal art. When, in 2005 Sotheby’s offered a rare sculpture of a Carpet Snake carved by the artist in 1972, it created quite a sensation. Estimated at just $1,000-1,500 (Lot 269) this rather spectacular object measuring just 69 cm in length sold for $22,800. It is by far and away his best result for a work in any medium other than painting. Sotheby’s have in fact made up most of the running on Billy Stockman’s works with their closest competition coming from Lawson~Menzies. He is, however, one of the most durable and recognised artists amongst collectors. Amongst his most notable failures at sale have been the large work Totemic Snakes 1985, that had been purchased from Deutscher~Menzies in June 1999 (Lot 17) for $8,050 when estimated at $8,000-10,000. Offered again at Lawson~Menzies in May 2007 (Lot 120) it simply could not justify its presale estimate of $18,000-22,000. Another failure was the beautifully rendered and extremely attractive board entitled Kangaroo Dreaming, Papunya which should have fully justified Mossgreen’s confidence in placing a presale estimate of $20,000-22,000 (Lot 190) but was passed in at their August 2008 sale. Further reinforcing the price sensitivity of Billy Stockman’s works, Frog Corroborree, a large early 1973 board, failed to sell at Deutscher~Menzies in June 2000 (Lot 144) when offered at $25,000-35,000, though it later sold at Sotheby’s in 2002 (Lot 335) for just $8,400 with a lowered expectation of $7,000-10,000. On a more positive note, a board entitled Women’s Bush Tucker Story 1972 (measuring 61 x 69 cm and bearing a Stuart Art Centre code number from the 11th consignment) originally failed to sell when offered at Lawson~Menzies in May 2004, carrying an estimate of $35,000-50,000 yet sold for $30,000 at the same auction house three years later. This is the artist’s fifth highest record at sale to date. It would seem that, for the time being at least, those interested in works by the most seminal artists of the movement should be able to include Billy Stockman in their collections for what will come to be considered a bargain price. His early boards are wonderful buying at anything under $30,000 and there are any number of 1980s and 1990s paintings to be had for a song. Billy died in September 2015 after a long and fruitful life. It is is definitely time that collectors began to reassess this wonderful old man’s legacy. Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

Artist Profile for Leo Melpi < Back Leo Melpi Leo Melpi ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE Leo Melpi ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

You are moving into a new apartment and may want a work of art to match your new space. You know the size and colours that will work for you and have an idea of the genre you are attracted to (modern, abstract, landscape, still life, expressionist, avant-garde). < Back HOW TO COLLECT ABORIGINAL ART — BUYING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY ARTWORKS ONLINE You are moving into a new apartment and may want a work of art to match your new space. You know the size and colours that will work for you and have an idea of the genre you are attracted to (modern, abstract, landscape, still life, expressionist, avant-garde). You also know how much you are prepared to spend. Art may be a luxury product but there are artworks to meet every budget. You probably intend to buy only one or two paintings, but if you are interested in art you could go on to buy a dozen over the next decade or two. You may be one of those rare individuals who are destined to become a serious ‘collector’ – only time will tell. Perhaps you live in the countryside, outside of the city with its many commercial galleries. You may live in the city and be surrounded by them. It can be scary and intimidating, appearing to be ignorant, when seeking prices from staff who appear too busy to stop what they are doing. There are so many galleries and so many different types of art. It shouldn’t take forever to find a gallery, artist or artwork you like. We are all comfortable buying clothes and books over the internet. Why not art? In fact, online sales are the single most rapidly expanding sector of the fine art market. According to a survey in 2014, 71% of recipients had bought art online, sight unseen, and 89% of galleries regularly sell artworks to clients on the basis of a digital image only*. Since then, from 2015 to 2017, online art sales have grown at an average of 17% per year. [The survey included 506 international art buyers (with young buyers comprising 42% of the overall sample), 130 established international art collectors, and 58 international art galleries]. While a majority of art buyers admit that they still preferred actually going to galleries, they said that the art world felt exclusive and inaccessible. As a result, more than a third of these same respondents believed that buying art online was less intimidating than buying from a physical gallery or auction house. Of the online art buyers surveyed, 75% said that the main advantage of buying online was the fact that they could find the artwork they wanted so much more easily than through trawling galleries. Spiders Web in Yari Country – Rover (Julama) Thomas 142.5 x 103.5 cm To begin a journey of online discovery and eventual purchase, you should find an online environment in which you can discover, browse, learn about and eventually buy art. You need an online gallery with an established reputation you can trust or, even better, an online platform that enables you to access the stockrooms of a range of established, reputable and trusted galleries. Galleries that will provide detailed information such as condition reports and certificates of authenticity to accompany your purchase. 89% of galleries in 2018 are using third party platforms on which they sell their art (this is up a whopping 30% from the previous year!) Aside from the major auction houses’ online platforms, some of the most popular websites have been Artsy (linking buyers with primary market galleries), Invaluable (an auction hosting and aggregating website) and Artnet. Social media is another huge factor in discovering and following the progress of artists and galleries. In 2018, 79% of art buyers under the age of 35 said they use Instagram to discover new artists, while 82% use it to keep up-to-date with artists they are already familiar with. The findings show that as many as 45% of repeat online buyers are willing to spend in the $10,000 and above category on fine art, compared to 19% of first-time buyers. This can only mean that the confidence to purchase higher price works is likely to increase and that the online market should grow rapidly in the coming years as technological and logistical barriers break down and buyers’ confidence in online purchasing increases. It is highly likely that a handful of online sales platforms will continue to assert themselves over others. Most people would still prefer to view an artwork in the flesh before purchasing it. It is now easy to find galleries, artists and artworks online, so that once you have discovered one or two artworks that you like, you can walk into the galleries with greater knowledge and confidence. The veil of exclusion over the art world is lifting. It’s never been easier to buy art. Visit our online gallery here. *conducted by ArtTactic and Hiscox Insurance . Click here to see the latest study. ___________________________________________ TIP NUMBER 1 ASK YOURSELF AT THE OUTSET. DO I LOVE IT? Only buy paintings that you genuinely like and get pleasure from. While purchasing an artwork may be a financial decision, the work must impart a great deal of pleasure. It is likely that you may hold on to it for your lifetime and pass it on to your heirs. While it is also possible that you will decide to sell an artwork quickly to take advantage of a perceived opportunity, you will generally fail to reap any significant financial reward if you sell an artwork too quickly. You have to be prepared to hold on to your art for up to 10 years, so you must buy something that you will love. To some this may sound like a given, but it is truly the most important factor in deciding on an artwork. You don’t need a lot of money- you just need to know what you like… I buy art because I love it. Lisa Paulsen, The Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, March 2011 Stay tuned for Tip Number 2 in the next issue. Previous Next Featured artworks Quick View ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 Quick View ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock Quick View LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 Quick View BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock Quick View JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 Quick View Book BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 Quick View FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 Quick View NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00

NungurrayiMuntj Muntja Nungurrayi Muntja Nungurrayi 1930 - 1997 Born c.1930 (though some sources say she was born as early as 1924), Muntja Nungurrayi lived most of her life in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. She was an important Tingari elder who passed on her significant tradional knowledge of women's ceremonies and dreamings through her meticulous and charged paintings. She passed away in 1997. Collection: Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth. Group Exhibitions: 2014 - Warlayirti: The Art of Balgo, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne. 2010 - Circles in the Sand : Aboriginal Art from Central Australia in the Kluge-Ruhe Collection featuring works by: Anatjarri No. III Tjakamarra, Bai Bai Napangati, Bessie Nakamarra Sims, Brandy Tjungurrayai, Dolly Nampijinpa Daniels, Eubena Nampitjin, Jack Jakamarra Ross -- Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, Michael Jagamara Nelson, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, Millie Skeen Nampitjin, Muntja Nungurrayai, Nancy Naninurra Napanangka, Paddy Jupurrula Nelson, Patrick Olodoodi Tjungurrayai, Rosie Nanyuma Napurrula, Sandy Gordon Tjupurrula, Sarah Napanangka, Shorty Jangala Robertson, Ted Egan Jangala, Timmy Payungka Tjapangati, Tjumpo Tjapanangka, Tommy Skeen Tjakamarra, Walangkura Napanangka, WARLUKURLANGU ARTISTS (Karrku Jupurra), William Sandy, Wintjiya Napaltjarri at the Embassy of Australia, Washington DC, USA. 2008 - Paintings from remote communities: Indigenous Australian art from the Laverty collection, Newcastle Regional Gallery, Newcastle, NSW. 2008 - Paintings from remote communities: Indigenous Australian art from the Laverty collection, Newcastle Regional Gallery, Newcastle, NSW. 2004 - EXPLAINED, A closer look at Aboriginal art, Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands. 1993 - Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga, Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach, Qld. 1992 - The View from Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. 1991 - Warlayirti Artists from Balgo Hills, WA, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney. 1989 - Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 1989 - Human Form, Spirit Form, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art, Sydney. 1987 - Karnta: Aboriginal Women's Art, exhibition touring Australia and Asia. See market performance Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

Artist Profile for Jospehine Wurrkidj < Back Jospehine Wurrkidj Jospehine Wurrkidj ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE JOSPEHINE WURRKIDJ - MIMIH SPIRIT (STAND) SOLD AU$1,150.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Jospehine Wurrkidj ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

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NapanangkaLucy Lucy Napanangka Lucy Napanangka 1934 - 2003 Yukenbarri The first painters from the remote community of Wirrimanu (Balgo) were all raised in the bush. They were the last generation to undergo full initiation and live the traditional nomadic life. Inspiration and subject matter were drawn from the Dreaming stories that underpin the cultural framework that once allowed desert tribes to exist in this remote and arid country. Balgo itself lies at the meeting of three great deserts (The Great Sandy, The Tanami and The Gibson Deserts) and several different tribal groups. Desert tribes came to the Catholic mission (established in 1942), driven from their traditional lands by European prospectors, and a severe drought that made food and water even more difficult to find. Unlike in some others places of refuge the Palatine priests were sympathetic to Aboriginal culture and encouraged a degree of self reliance in their converts, possibly later influencing the exuberant art style that was to emerge at Balgo. Lucy Yukenbarri is considered to be one of the most innovative and daring of Balgo painters, laying down fields of intense colour with a thick, painterly texture. Her primary brushstroke has been referred to as ‘the splodge’. They are actually merged dots that she refers to as ‘kinti kinti’ (close, close). They dry quickly in the intense heat, building up with a chromatic density that has no time for gentle gradations or blended hues. The result is a rich immediacy of contrast and resonance, likened by writer James Cowan to the magic of the Persian carpet that also originates from a desert land. Lucy Yukenbarri worked in a state of contemplative reverie, traversing an imaginary landscape, often singing quietly her traditional songs. Alongside the traditional domestic activities of gathering bush food and building camp, her ever-present subject is 'living' or spring water and the landmarks or stories that surround it. These water sources are depicted with dark colours and surrounded by bright areas of vivacious abstract composition, celebrating life’s continuance. Lucy’s distinctive style has left a lasting influence on Balgo painting. When Papunya painting started receiving public acclaim in the late 1970s, Balgo artists expressed concern about revealing sacred cultural designs or secret (initiate only) knowledge. Conflict between the two closely tied communities arose and the need/demand for some form of iconic veiling, abstraction or disguise was soon established throughout all Western Desert art projects. This had varying effects in different communities but when acrylic colours and canvas were introduced into Balgo’s adult education classes in the early 1980s, the explosion of raw spirit and joyful colour took everyone by surprise. By the end of that decade, creativity was at a peak and a distinct Balgo style had emerged: bright, bold and innovative. Women as well as men were active in these foundational years, including Lucy, sometimes working in conjunction with her artist husband Helicopter Tjungurrayi. “There is nothing in the world of contemporary art that can match the work of these artists”, wrote art critic John McDonald in 1995 (Sydney Morning Herald). Balgo was at the forefront of a major art movement. With her prodigious output and enthusiasm for art making, Lucy remained a quiet but leading figure at Warlayirti Artists. She was a senior law woman with an irreplaceable knowledge of the ancient places, ceremonies and narratives. In 2000, the documentary film 'Painting Country' followed the now elderly artists, including Lucy and Helicopter, on a long road trip back to their homelands near Lake Mackay and Jupiter Wells deep in the Gibson Desert. Their internalised knowledge and spiritual connection to this land of spinifex, sandhills and rocky outcrops was as strong as ever and plain to see. It is this that sustained them through many long years of loss and displacement and provided the wellspring of a formidable creative force, still vibrant and strong today. Profile author: Sophie Pierce Collections ArtBank, Sydney. Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Queensland. Campbelltown City Art Gallery. National Gallery of Australia. National Gallery of Victoria. The Holmes a Court Collection. Laverty Collection. Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA. Parliament House Art Collection. Alice Springs Art Foundation, Araluen Centre. Ken Thompson and Pierre Marecaux Collection. Individual Exhibitions 2003, Always Together Painting, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne. 1999, Tjurrnu: Living Water, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne. Group Exhibitions 1989, The Sixth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1990, Warlayirti Artists, Birukmarri Gallery, Freemantle, WA. 1991, Paintings by Senior Women from the Western Desert, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria. 1993, Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga,Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach,Qld; 1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 1994, Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria. The Eleventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1997 - L'Art des Aborigenes d'Australie, Arts d'Australie Stephane Jacob / Galerie de Stassart, Bruxelles. L'Art des Aborigenes d'Australie, Arts d'Australie Stephane Jacob / Espace Paul Riquet, Beziers. 1999 - Australie - Art, Arts d'Australie Stephane Jacob / J.L. Amsler - Bastille, Paris. 2002 - An Artists Survey, Balgo Hills, at Hogarth Galleries, Paddington Awards 1999, 1999 Waringarri Arts Award, East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra Arts Council 2000, Highly Commended, 31st Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs Bibliography 2001, Finnane, K, Alice Prize: 'Immense diversity of humanity', Alice Springs News, Vol 8, issue 40, Nov 7, Pg3 1994, Johnson, V, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW A detailed market analysis will be available shortly Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

Artist Profile for Cynthia Burke < Back Cynthia Burke Cynthia Burke ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE Cynthia Burke ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

Campbell, JuniorRober Robert Campbell, Junior Robert Campbell, Junior 1944 - 1993 Primarily self-taught, Robert Campbell jnr. emerged during the 1980s’, as a prominent urban aboriginal artist. His bold, idiosyncratic style strikes a remarkable balance between the public and the private as he tells visual stories of his personal memories, of historical events and some of the tumultuous political breakthroughs of the day. Born in the country town of Kempsey, Campbell jnr. walked with his father through the bushlands alongside the Macleay river, finding wood suitable for making boomerangs. He would help his father decorate them with scorch-incised indigenous patterning and designs of birds and animals. They would sell them to passing tourists. After finishing school at fourteen, Campbell moved about the area working at labouring jobs but continuing to paint and sell small landscapes using a variety of found or leftover paint on cardboard. Settling back in Kempsey, alongside meeting his partner and starting a family, Campbell’s artistic vocation took centre stage. He met other artists, developed his skills and confidence and became attuned to the immensity of his people’s struggle. He liked to work under the trees in his own backyard and was always supportive of young local artists who liked to call by. He said that his subject matter came from things that touched him personally. Campbell soon became known for his brightly coloured acrylic paintings which drew on his early decorative work of naïve figures and their activities. After visiting the Northern territory in the late 80’s and meeting Aboriginal artists in their communities, he acquired new techniques such as dot painting, x-ray vision and the use of ground ochres. He grafted these methods seamlessly into his graphic style. From nostalgic, childhood scenes of camp life and bush food gathering, to brutal scenes of white conquest, murder and the poisoning of waterholes, Campbell managed to convey a sense of unflinching observation of the past whilst avoiding the heavy weight of political stridence. He often uses a sequence of frames within the painting to tell a story, such as in Abo History Facts (1988). This cartoonesque evocation of the coming of white man (in tall ships,) shows the deleterious consequences of colonisation: from initial destruction of environment and enforced segregation in crowded missions to the more recent publicity around incarceration and deaths in custody. Campbell powerfully instructs his audience while still bubbling with irrepressible colour, pattern and spirit. “Few practitioners in world art encompass joy and suffering so effortlessly as Robert Campbell jnr.” (George, 2014) Before his untimely death from heart disease, Campbells vivid colours and raw, naïve vision featured in many exhibitions, including at the Rebecca Hossack gallery in London. He helped to establish the voice of urban aboriginal art within the Australian art establishment and today, still provides us with a unique indigenous perspective on history. Reference: George, Alexander in Tradition Today: Indigenous Art in Australia, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney 2014 Franchesca Cubillo and Wally Caruana (eds) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art: collection highlights, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2010 Hossack, Rebecca, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-robert-campbell Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

TjampitjinpaAnatj Anatjari No. I Tjampitjinpa Anatjari No. I Tjampitjinpa 1927 - 1999 Anatjari No. 1, Anitjari, Minjina, Minyina, Jampijinpa, Tjampitjimpa Anatjari Tjampitjinpa was born and grew up at Ilyipi in Pintupi country west of Kiwirrkura and east of Jupiter Well in Western Australia. In 1964 he moved to Papunya with his three wives and their children as well as his brothers, Old Walter and Yarakula. Other members of his immediate family, including Milliga Napaljarri and Dinny Campbell, moved north to Balgo Hills. His son, Ray James Jangala, recalls that when he was about five years old they were found at Mukala by the Welfare Patrol, led by Jeremy Long, with Nosepeg Tjupurrula and a Tjampitjinpa from Papunya. Although he was an athletic warrior, Anatjari and his family had been surviving only on seed damper as there was nothing to eat or drink, the waters having dried up and the grasses having died. Though the Pintupi were the last group of Aboriginal people to be encountered by Europeans, the impact of settlement was more devastating than that experienced by other areas such as Arnhem Land. The government policy up to 1966 saw desert people from different tribal groups brought into designated Government settlements, thus ‘bringing them together in the most inappropriate social circumstances with detrimental effects on their cultural practice' (Caruana 1993: 98). This negative portrayal of migration does not fully depict Anatjari’s experience however. Having moved to Balgo during the early 1970’s to spend time with other members of his family, he returned only occasionally to Papunya, by which time the painting movement was well underway. He created only a few pencil and watercolour drawings for Geoffrey Bardon before moving between Balgo and Docker River and did not join the Papunya artists until the mid 1970’s, when he was lured by the collective identity of painters, joining together and influencing each other. This cross influence led to experimentation with the properties of paint and the development of distinct personal styles, increasingly distanced from their ceremonial origins. The basic elements of Western Desert art are ‘limited in number but broad in meaning‘ (Caruana 1993: 98) with the ceremonies and stories associated with the travels of the Tingari ancestors remaining a constant feature of Pintupi iconography. Anatjari favoured the most literal imagery, which featured dismembered circles floating above an unorganised plane of dotted colour. These ‘not only radiate centrifugally, beyond the apparent confines of the canvas, to encompass or imply a seemingly infinite sense of environmental space, but they also resonate with the mythic basis of social organization and tribal morality‘ (Clark: 2005: 62). Anatjari Tjampitjinpa’s paintings embody Clark’s description, with their minimal use of iconography, and include Bardon’s two main archetypes; those depicting travelling lines or journeys of the ancestors across the country, and those designating a specific place or locality. While there was a sameness about the imagery in all but a few works throughout his entire oeuvre, Anatjari’s masterpiece Snake Dreaming at Yunkurraya 1983, is a less conventional work, depicting the water site of Yunkurraya, the home of a large snake, set amongst sand hills. The painterly effect of the canvas brings to mind Bardon’s comment on the Aboriginal temperament as having a 'predilection to the sensitivity of touch'. He went on to say that ‘this is a haptic sensation, a physical quality and tactile, different entirely from the visual sensation in eyesight‘ (cited in Clark 2005: 59). In contrast to the visual preoccupation of ‘Western Perspectivism’ in landscape painting, this alternative way of seeing in Aboriginal art provides a window into the alien, unknown regions of Australia, ‘it is as if, to be acclimatised to the great Spinifex country at the heart of our continent, we had to be shown it through the eyes of the people who know the country most intimately‘ (Clark 2005: 61). Anatjari Tjampitjinpa was not a prolific artist. Having begun to paint in earnest in the mid 1970’s, he continued when, along with many Pintupi, he returned to his ancestral lands in the 1980’s following a change of federal government policy. He painted for Papunya Tula Artists throughout the 1980’s and remained a consistent and dedicated painter into the mid 1990’s by which time he had become frail. Because he moved throughout his life between the various Pintupi settlements as far north as Balgo Hills, he was instrumental in spreading information about the new acrylic painting amongst artists in places distant from Papunya, where it all began. His work appeared regularly in the National Aboriginal Art Award throughout the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s and was presented in the ‘Face of the Centre’ at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1985. His painting that toured the USA between 1988 and 1990 in the exhibition Dreamings: Art of Aboriginal was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia and his magnum opus, Travels of the Tingari Men created in the late 1970’s is in the collection of the Kelton Foundation. He died at the age of 70 after making an invaluable contribution to Western Desert arts ‘golden age’ through being a consistent and dedicated painter for more than 30 years. It has always been assumed that Anatjari Tjampitjinpa, or Anatjari No.1 as he is more familiarly known, was a member of the founding artist’s at Papunya. This is due to the fact that he left the nomadic desert life in the early 1960’s and, as he was so closely related to many of the major Western Desert artists, he must have joined them painting with Bardon in the early 1970’s. However this was not the case. He drew only a few pencil sketches for Geoffrey Bardon because he spent the first half of the 1970’s living at Balgo Hills. His earliest recorded paintings are two works that date from 1976, one of which is in his top ten highest sales. It depicts the Soakage Water Site of Nuluntja (Lunjuna) on a canvas board measuring 71 x 53.5 cm and was sold at Sotheby’s in November 2007 for $13,200 (Lot 52). Nuluntja is a site where the Wati Djuta (literally 'man many') gathered for ceremonies. The other 1976 work sold for $6,325 at Sotheby’s in June 2000 (Lot 167). Painted on the same sized canvas board this work was originally acquired by the Aboriginal Arts Board and catalogued by them in 1978 as a work by Anatjari III Tjakamarra, however this was later corrected after consultation with Papunya Tula Artists. What distinguishes these two works from other paintings created later is the crudity of their execution, as well as the uniform field of monochrome dotted in-fill indicating the artist was new to painting. Both works are distinctive and the former is especially evocative of the floor of the large claypan and the flatness of the bottom of the lake at Lunjuna. The painting which holds his record price at auction is a spectacular work, completely atypical, and in my opinion, as good as any work by a Pintupi artist of the early 1980’s. Snake Dreaming at Yunkurraya 1983, demonstrates the artist’s ability at it’s peak. As Papunya works go, it is extremely innovative with the minor shifts in background tonal quality defined within the meandering white lines that delineate the major features of the soakwater set amidst the sandhills. This work is reminiscent of the finest works by Mick Namarari and other master painters of the Western Desert art movement. Measuring 152 x 92 cm, and carrying an estimate of $18,000-25,000 it sold at Sotheby's as long ago as June 1998 for $21,850 (Lot 42). I have little doubt that were this magnificent work to appear once more for sale the result would be much closer to that achieved for the equally atypical Two Men Dreaming at Kuluntjarranya 1984 painted by Tommy Lowrey Tjapaltjarri which sold for $576,000 at Sotheby’s in July 2007 (Lot 51). Certainly something was happening west of Kintore in 1983-1984 that stimulated the production of better work than that produced both before and after. Anatjarri’s paintings first appeared at auction in 1993 and by the end of 1997 fourteen works had been offered of which only one had failed to sell. However, more recent results paint a vastly different picture. The interest in ethnographic looking works, especially generic Tingari paintings. In 2008 Sotheby's offered the only two works to appear for sale and both failed to justify their estimates of $15,000-18,000 and $15,000-25,000. Between 2009 and the end of 2017, eleven works found homes of the 17 that were offered. While the vast majority of the highest results for works by the early Pintupi men’s paintings are dominated by the stellar results achieved for 1971-1973 boards, Anatjari No.I did not begin painting until later and the majority of his paintings seem pedestrian and formulaic compared to those by a number of his contemporaries. For the most part, throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s, he produced generic Tingari paintings featuring interconnected concentric circular sites with Tingari ancestors depicted as crescent shaped icons alongside the major roundels. At their best these are well executed if uninspiring and while a number of them occupy places amongst his ten highest results, a most have failed to sell, especially those created late in his career. A good example would be the fate of the 152 x 122 cm Papunya Tula sourced Tingari Story at Ngaarwlada 1990, first offered for sale by Sotheby’s in July 2004 (Lot 277). Having failed to sell when carrying an estimate of $8,000-12,000, it was re-offered by Sotheby’s in July 2007 (Lot 182) this time with a presale estimate of just $5,000-8,000 but nonetheless met with the same disappointing result. Collectors should exercise extreme caution with works by this artist. While he has earned a place as an important artist historically, all but his very finest works fail to inspire. By the mid 1990’s he was at the end of his painting career and too old and frail to make the stylistic leap that carried a number of younger Papunya men to prominence. Those who own his works should not expect to see their values rise on the basis of his name alone. Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

TjampitjinSunfl Sunfly Tjampitjin Sunfly Tjampitjin 1916 - 1996 Sandfly, Murtiyarru Sunfly Tjampitjin, was born in the Alec Ross Ranges north-west of Lake Mackay c. 1920 and began painting in his mid sixties in 1984, several years prior to the establishment of Warlayirti Artists at Balgo Hills. As the senior Kukatja ritual leader he, and other elder men of the community, sought to create a body of work to record, in the most intimate detail, the site maps of the desert country in which they grew up prior to outside contact. Sunfly’s early endeavors made a significant contribution to the first exhibition of art from the Balgo community held in Perth in 1986. Hosted by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art from the Sandy Desert was the first public recognition of the nascent art movement at Balgo Hills and gave the lead to their subsequent establishment and commercial success. Despite hearing about the genesis of the painting movement at Papunya when a group of Pintupi people traveled to Balgo for the ceremonial season in 1971, the Balgo elders were cautious in following their initiative because of the dangers of representing imagery connected to sacred ceremonies in permanent media, which would later enter the public domain. The starkness and simplicity of Sunfly’s compositions is indeed reminiscent of sacred ground paintings – 'the style is stripped of subsidiary detail and is startling in its economy' (Ryan 1993: 93). The bold use of flat blocks of red, yellow, white and black have spiritual significance for, as ochres, they embody the transformed substances of the ancestral beings. These same pigments are applied as body paint during ceremonies to reunite the participants with the land. Tjampitjin employed these sacred pigments to depict an element of the Tingari ritual, of which he was a senior custodian. However, the strong linear elements and interconnected circles that represent paths and places denote more than landscape in the traditional sense. They depict an area of ancestral travel, and are representational only in so far as the mythical landscape of the Dreaming and the actual landscape coincide. It is this metaphysical concept of a sign invoking a transcendent reality that underlies the visual language inherent in the art at Balgo. Apart from Sunfly’s representational motifs of Luurnpa, the ancestral kingfisher, beings are often only shown by the mark or trace they leave. This tradition is upheld throughout many parts of the Kimberley, amongst artists such as Rover Thomas despite the distance between his and Sunfly’s aesthetic. Following his participation in group exhibitions at Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery in Sydney and Gallerie Gabriele Pizzi in Melbourne, from the late 1980’s onward, Sunfly Tjampitjin’s works were included in the most important landmark exhibitions during the final years of his life. Amongst these were Mythscapes, Aboriginal Art of the Desert, at the National Gallery of Victoria and Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989; Aboriginal Paintings from the Desert, shown at the Union of Soviet Artists Gallery, Moscow and Museum of Ethnographic Art in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1991; Crossroads-Towards a New Reality, at the, National Museums of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo in 1992 and Aratjara, Art of the First Australians, at the Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Dusseldorf and other touring venues throughout Europe in 1994. Sunfly was already around 70 years old when the Walayirti art centre opened in Balgo and only lived for another ten years. In those early days the volume of art produced at the art centre was no more than 300 works by a wide array of artists, far fewer than the 1500 or more paintings per annum that are created today. It is estimated that in Sunfly’s entire career he produced little more than a total of 50 paintings. Yet so powerful are his works that his renown was unparalleled amongst the burgeoning art community at Balgo Hills during his lifetime. The visually dominant traveling paths in Sunfly's paintings connote the intimate connection he retained with the hunter-gatherer way of life.Sunfly only painted a few works before the art centre at Balgo Hills opened. After its establishment, it took the early art coordinators visiting him at his camp in Yaga Yaga, 120 kilometers into the sand dunes south of Balgo, for him to start painting for the art centre. Painting in collaboration with his wife Bai Bai Napangarti meant his bold aesthetic developed independently of other Balgo artists, who relied more on dotting and parallel currents of lines. The effect was to create work of an almost primeval quality. The emotive potency of his work comes from being, 'like Miro, another artist steeped in his land and culture, whose small stylized paintings, made up of simple black lines and coloured patterns, contain all the knowledge and experience of a lifetime' (Snell cited in Bardon 1989: 58). This knowledge has impregnated Sunfly’s modest output with far greater value than its weight would suggest, transforming him into a central figure of, and formative contributor to, the priceless legacy left by the older generation of painters who left the desert nomadic life in their maturity and settled to the north of their homelands. Only a handful of collectors have a painting by Sunfly Tjampitjin and it is a lucky one indeed that possesses one of his finer works. Little wonder they rarely appear in the salerooms with works being offered for sale on only 20 occasions. His record price of $200,250 was achieved for the cover work in Sotheby’s July 2004 catalogue. Measuring 118 x 84.5 cm and painted in 1991, Yapinti-Pinki Dreaming sold for more than double the estimated $70,000-100,000. The painting was well known and anticipated with great interest having been illustrated many times over the years in books featuring art from Balgo. Sotheby's did not make the mistake of underestimating the next major work they managed to secure. Their huge expectation of $120,000-180,000 for Wanayarra the Rainbow Snake in The Artist's Country 1990 was thoroughly justified when it sold in their July 2007 sale (Lot 57) for $144,000. His third highest result was for a work of similar size to his record holder which sold at Lawson-Menzies’ May 2005 sale for $87,000, $7,000 above the top estimate. Only a small number of knowledgeable collectors would have been aware that in June 2000 a similar sized work Two Women at Yataru had been purchased at Sotheby's for just $9,200 . When sold four years later in May 2004 at Lawson~Menzies however, it made a tidy profit of more than $30,000 (Lot 32). However, another work purchased for $22,800 from Sotheby's in 2005 by Dutch uber-collector Thomas Vroom was re-sold during Vrooms de-accession sale with Bonham's in 2015 for $9,600. Only five works by this artist have failed to sell at auction and two occured in 2012. Surprisingly Sotheby’s did not manage to find a buyer for the untitled 1992 work that carried a low estimate of $20,000 in their July 2006 sale. Yet two other works that did not sell when first presented, both found new homes when presented at subsequent offerings. Litjin 1989 was passed in at Sotheby’s in July 2001 with an estimate of $12,000-18,000 and later fetched $26,400 at Lawson-Menzies in Nov 2004. The other work that failed to sell when first up for auction was an atypical work measuring 60 x 120 cm, which sold six months later at Lawson-Menzies in July 2005 for only $3,600. It was the artist’s worst result replacing the $7,475 paid for a small work on a canvas board created in 1985, one year before the art centre opened. This small board was one of the six that were in the very first Balgo exhibition organized by the Catholic Mission and held at the Art Gallery of WA. In 2013 Bonhams achieved the artists 3rd highest result of $79,300 with the sale of a work from the 'The Laverty Collection: Contemporary Australian Art'. Proving that although rare, these works still continue to fetch well-deserved high prices. As time goes by, expect these early works from Balgo that were painted by old men of high degree to carry a similar mystique to those from the early Papunya period and sell for escalating prices. Sunfly Tjampitjin never had the opportunity to paint anything larger than 120 x 80 cm canvases of which there are no more than 30 in existence. They are tightly held and will attract ever-increasing estimates on those rare occasions when they appear for sale. Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW