Artist Profile for Bernice Perdjert < Back Bernice Perdjert Bernice Perdjert ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE BERNICE PERDJERT - DILLY BAG, KUNUNURRA WA Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Bernice Perdjert 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 .

Artist Profile for Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarrey < Back Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarrey Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarrey ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarrey 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 .

UTOPIA - IN DETAIL From 21 March to 16 April 2022 UTOPIA - IN DETAIL From 21 March to 16 April 2022 UTOPIA - IN DETAIL From 21 March to 16 April 2022 "The former Utopia cattle station in Central Australia, is home to many small Anmatyerr and Alyawarr family groups living in an 1800 square kilometre section of Central Australian desert transected by the largely dry Sandover River. In this extreme desert climate, a Westerner might imagine it as far from perfect. Yet, to the Aboriginal painters who work here, nestled in small outstations close to their ancestral land, the region’s history of violent conflict and dispossession is of little consequence. Here, the summer heat often exceeds forty degrees Celsius. In winter the nights are cold, with sub-zero and frosts between June and August. But following infrequent rain, the desert landscape is transformed. The dried-out Spinifex flowers resemble a field of wheat, and the mulga shrub bears green dense foliage and masses of bright yellow flowers. Growing amongst these plants is an abundance of wildflowers that turn the deep red desert floor into a utopian multicoloured garden. In this environment paintings of ‘country’ become contemporary dialogues, translations of ancient laws, culture and way of life. Individual in creation, they depict shared stories and country. They arise through their shared cultural heritage depicting the food, the flora and the Dreamings that traverse this vast and ancient landscape. Many of these paintings can be read and appreciated at a superficial level for their abstractionism, but the deeper layer which involves the cultural and social mores, requires intimate knowledge to be fully appreciated. These paintings are a contemporary expression of the cultural knowledge an artist holds about their country. Topography depicted through such subtleties as direction and size, the sun’s trajectory, or the details of the artist’s relationship to her sister, cousins, uncles, and aunts are all translated through the medium of acrylic paint. The driving motivation seems totally divorced from the final aesthetic produced through their labours. A reference back to country is proffered upon every stroke. In this context, seeds, tracks, rocks, rivers, eggs, and so much more are part of the pictorial language of her their Dreaming story, be it the life cycle of a plant such as the Bush Plum, or animal like the Bush Turkey. Traces of their movement creep across the canvas and are buried beneath successive layers semi-transparent layers of diluted medium. This is a ‘Utopian’ vision, that colours these artists’ reading of their surrounding homelands."

NapanangkaMakin Makinti Napanangka Makinti Napanangka 1922 - 2011 Makinti Napanangka walked in to Haasts Bluff ration depot during the 1940’s with her young son when in her early 20’s and by the time she had moved to the new settlement of Papunya had given birth to a daughter. Having been uprooted after encountering white men while still young, she later returned to her home country as the outstation movement gained strength, and settled five hundred kilometers west of Alice Springs, at Tjukurla close to Mangarri where she was born. Although women had often assisted during the early years of the Papunya painting movement, painting had been considered an exclusively male project. Through the seventies, the male Pintupi painters had developed an austere and very precise mode of design that managed to convey the intensity of ceremonial artistry without revealing traditional sacred content. The success of their Tingari paintings in particular provided the funds and confidence that Pintupi people needed to set up outstations and return to their much longed for country. Like a number of her female tribeswomen, Makinti began painting independently many years later in 1994, when a women’s painting project was organized for the Haasts Bluff and Kintore communities. Away from their men folk and camped in a specifically female sacred site, the women re-affirmed their own traditional ceremonies and collaborated on large canvases that were soon to reveal a strikingly new creative charge. After the conspicuous deliberation of the men’s painting style, the women worked with a confident spontaneity that promised a wealth of new expressive possibilities. This event marked a major development in contemporary Desert art as many of the women went on to become full-time painters for Papunya Tula Artists and gained wide public acclaim. Makinti was by now in her mid-sixties and her bright palette, slightly impasto surfaces and loosely worked geometric compositions were immediately attractive to visiting enthusiasts and art buyers. Makinti’s gestural style and bold line work was derived from painting with her fingers dipped in earth ochres onto her clanswomen’s bodies for ceremony. The tactile surfaces of her paintings reflect this touching and sensing, just as her painterly use of colour and form generates a sense of celebration and movement. Through these haptic surfaces Makinti maintains her cultural traditions while the images serve to revivify the journeying of her two ancestral female ancestors, the Kungka Kutjarra as they dance their way across the country. Their travels follow the desert water sources and, particularly in Makinti’s art, Lupulnga, the rockhole where she was born and where her connections to her spiritual origins are felt. Small ovoid roundels, often in linear sequence, denote this crossing of country. “Care for country” is an important motivation for this bond as the water sources must be cleared of debris and sand to keep them, and the life they support, fresh and flowing. Towards the end of the nineties Makinti’s art began to focus more on long, loose linear ribbons of paint, inspired by the hair string traditionally spun and worn by women and connected to love magic, sexuality and allure. These bands of colour also hint at ‘the rhythm and movements of ceremonial songs and dances as well as the desert landscape itself’ (Ryan 2005). Dense patterns of curving lines predominate over smaller areas of tightly packed cellular shapes. Visual complexities tease the eye in an interesting overlap between highly structured areas and those that are painted more loosely. This more controlled approach coincided with a cataract operation that restored her failing eyesight and revitalized Makinti’s engagement with painting. Piling on the paint, she instinctively conveys her own sense of order amongst the vibrantly coloured profusion of yellows, oranges and various shades of pink. Her distinctive dabbing technique and long stroking brushwork carry over into rhythmic compositions that resound with an instinctive energy, full of life and enthusiasm. Although a tiny woman, Makinti commands a strength of purpose and a presence that has been vital in furthering the momentum of the desert painting community. She is recognized as one of Papunya Tula’s leading artists and in recent years has been named as one of Australia’s 50 Most Collectable Artists every year between 2003 and 2006 in Australian Art Collector Magazine. This recognition followed several important solo exhibitions held at Utopia Art Sydney in 2000 and 2001 and at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi the following year. Makinti Napanangka, until her passing in 2011, was the most senior woman of the elderly group, who are widely recognized as the top Pintupi painters. While she was a key member of Papunya Tula Artists, and her name was listed as a director of the company, she increasingly painted for a range of dealers in Alice Springs outside of the ‘company’ during the last years of her life. While many of her works produced for these alternate sources are equal to anything produced for Papunya Tula, the market, currently deeply concerned about provenance issues, does not think them of as highly. This was underscored when in 2008 she was awarded the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award for a work submitted by Papunya Tula. While the award winning work itself may not have been her finest, those present overwhelmingly endorsed the award given the quality of her works over a sustained period. In making the award the judges demonstrated quite pointedly their own prejudice in favour of art centre provenanced works at a time when the public debate over independent dealers had reached its zenith. Makinti was a committed and prolific artist, whose work has been widely exhibited and included in many important collections. At the time of her death she was one of the most highly respected custodians of women’s traditional knowledge in the Central Desert region and the standard bearer for the women artists of the region. While Makinti Napanangka appeared regularly between 2003 and 2006 amongst the '50 Most Collectable Artists’ in Art Collector magazine, her work varies greatly in quality and became increasingly untidy from the beginning of 2007 until her death in 2011. Nine of the top ten highest prices are all for relatively large works equal or greater than 122 x 152 cm in size while the vast majority of her lesser results have been for relatively minor paintings or paintings with provenance other than Papunya Tula Artists. It was in fact a non-Papunya Tula painting which set a record for the artist in May 2005 at Lawson~Menzies when sold for $60,000 against a presale estimate of $50,000-60,000. The work was originally purchased from Central Art in Alice Springs and accompanied by a 40-minute video of the artist painting at various stages throughout its creation. This record was broken the following year when Sotheby’s sold a beautiful Papunya Tula painting Lupulnga 2003 in July 2006 for $72,000 against a presale estimate of $60,000-80,000. Still, with only 28 works sold for more than $10,000, all but a tiny number of her higher priced works have Papunya Tula provenance. Makinti's fortunes at auction have been mixed. In 2007 Mossgreen set a top ten record for a rather crudely executed Papunya Tula work in August (Lot 17) carrying an estimate of $25,000-35,000, while two extremely accomplished paintings carrying estimates of $12,000-18,000 at Sotheby’s and $35,000-40,000 at Lawson~Menzies failed to sell. In 2009, three works sold above $15,000, while she was the 9th best performing artist during 2011 with an impressive total sales of just under $300,000. In that year two new records entered her top ten. Sales between 2012 and 2014 were not good with more works failing than finding new homes. She bounced back however in 2015 and finished as the 12th most successful during that year. Thirteen works sold of 17 offered including an Untitled painting created in 1997, which set a new record for the artist when sold for $105,000 in Deutscher and Hackett's sale of the important Laverty Collection. The painting was atypical for a work with PT provenance and more closely resembled those created for independent dealers post-2005. Nevertheless it sold for almost three times its high presale estimate. Her 2015 results saw her rise from 45th most successful artist of the movement to 43rd. While only six of 13 works on offer sold in 2016, Lupulnga 2002, a lovely example of her finest works measuring 183 x 152.5 cm sold from the USA based Lucso Family Collection at Deutscher & Hackett for $54,900 (Lot 48) setting a new 4th highest record for the artist. 2017 saw middling results, save for a 122 x 122 cm work with PT provenance that sold for $26,840, exceeding its high estimate by over $6,000. Though nine of the 15 works on ofer in 2019 sold and she was the 21st most successful artist in that year, the average price of the works that sold was around half her career average ($9642). Nevertheless, her fortunes have been on the rise for some time and she is now the 21st most successful artist of the movement overall. Papunya Tula provenance invariably adds greatly to the value of Makinti's works, even though the quality of the image is often the ultimate determiner of value. Though her greatest output occurred during the last 5 years of her life, she had not begun to paint until late in life and her output was relatively small. Of the 242 works offered for sale the vast majority have been small and these have depressed her average considerably. Expect the prices of smaller paintings with Papunya Tula provenance to rise considerably over time and her major works to fetch an ever-increasing premium as the primary market for her work has now dried up. 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 Sarah Napaljarri Sims < Back Sarah Napaljarri Sims Sarah Napaljarri Sims ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE Sarah Napaljarri Sims 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 .

Artist Profile for Tjayanka Woods < Back Tjayanka Woods Tjayanka Woods ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE TJAYANKA WOODS - THE SEVEN SISTERS SOLD AU$5,000.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Tjayanka Woods 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 .

Artist Profile for Cindy Nakamarra Gibson < Back Cindy Nakamarra Gibson Cindy Nakamarra Gibson ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE Cindy Nakamarra Gibson I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy. 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 .

Artist Profile for June McInerney < Back June McInerney June McInerney ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE June McInerney 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 .

Artist Profile for Polly Watson Napangardi < Back Polly Watson Napangardi Polly Watson Napangardi ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE POLLY WATSON NAPANGARDI - NGURLU BLACK SEED DREAMING Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Polly Watson Napangardi 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 .

MandarrkWally Wally Mandarrk Wally Mandarrk 1915 - 1987 Born around 1915, Wally Mandarrk grew up in south-central Arnhem Land and spent time at Marlkawo near Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek’s country of Kabulwarnamyo. He did not meet a European until 1946 when he began work at a sawmill in Maranboy. He remained by all accounts a private and traditional man, avoiding contact with Balanda (non-Indigenous people). Through the 1960s and 70s he lived at a number of bush camps including one at Mankorlod before establishing Yaymini outstation with his family in remote Arnhem escarpment country. He was a Barabba clan man of the Balang skin group. His art and practice reflects his traditional character. He continued using orchid juice (djalamardi, Dendrobium sp. - orchid) as a binder for his ochres long after bark artists were introduced to PVA glue. One of his bark works in the National Museum of Australia collection, Borlung and Kangaroo (1972-73) was in fact painted for his family on the wall of their bark shelter in the Mankorlod estate. It was found there by Maningrida art centre manager Dan Gillespie in 1973. In the 1960s he worked with the anthropologist Eric Brandl, who documented a rock painting Mandarrk completed of Bolung (the Rainbow Serpent) in a cave in the Cadell River region around 1965. Mandarrk's works that were painted for sale are distinctive for the simple, stocky outline of his figures, infilled with regular bands of red, white and yellow cross-hatching on a plain red background. This hatching infill is known as rarrk in the Kunwinjku language. His alignment of the diagonal bands of rarrk is often quite uni-directional and vertical, and the extremities of figures and other objects is often filled with more simple parallel rarrk without cross-hatching. Many of his works depict Wayarra (profane ghost or demon spirits) or Mimih (thin, mischevious spirits inhabiting the stone country). For Kunwinjku people, these spirits sometimes form the basis of morality stories, living as they do in a fashion not entirely different from Bininj (Aboriginal people). Mimih spirits in particular are thought to have originated many everyday bush skills which they then passed on to Aboriginal people. In Mandarrk’s work they are often seen gathering food in dilly bags, hunting and playing mako (didgeridoo). As well as appearing in many stories, the existence of these spirits is often the reason certain areas are not visited, usually regarded as dangerous places. Other works by Mandarrk depict animals such as crocodiles, kangaroos and birds as well as the Rainbow Serpent, with influence from rock art styles. Mandarrk’s works were collected during the 1948 American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land, and were also bought by the Maningrida art centre in its early days. His works have been included in exhibitions such as Power of the Land: Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (1994), the international touring exhibition Aratjara - Art of the First Australians (1993-4), Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984-5 and Art of Aboriginal Australia which toured North America in 1974-76. Wally Mandarrk passed away in 1987. Profile author: Dan Kennedy In many ways, the performance of Wally Mandarrk's paintings at public auction is a reflection of the changing tastes in Aboriginal art market itself. His works were included in the very first Aboriginal specilist sale held by Sotheby's in 1994. By 2000, when AIAM100 statistics began, Mandarrk was the 38th most successful artist of all time. Since then average prices for bark paintings have been eclipsed by those for urban, desert and Kimberley paintings and many artists from the central and western regions of Australia have risen through the rankings rapidly. So much so that by 2007, at the peak of the market boom, Mandarrk had fallen to 117th in ranking and by 2010 he'd fallen to his nadir at 127th. Since that time however, the fortunes of a number of the bark tradition's most renowned painters have risen with the recent trend toward ethnographic and museological works. By 2014 he was 118th (having been the 61st most successful artist that year). He is fluctuating between 110th and 130th for the foreseeable future due principally to his low average price. His success in 2014 was due to the success of all 5 barks on offer. Nevertheless, his highest price that year was just $2,440, just a fraction higher than his average price of $2,115 at the time. With a record price of just $7475 set as long ago as 2000, and only 3 recorded sales over $5000, Mandarrks barks are eminently affordable. His clearance rate of 54% is an indication that when they carried estimates that are too high, many works have failed to sell. Among these is the untitled image of a spirit figure with a fish trap presented at Sotheby's in July 2009 carrying an estimate of $6000-8000, and the untiled image of a man playing the didgeridu with his wife alongside estimated at $5000-7000 in Sotheby's subsequent November sale that year. Mandarrk was an artist who painted long before the advent of the Aboriginal art 'industry', though he lived to see it burgioning at the time of his death in 1987. Yet a huge tranch of 45 works appeared at Sotheby's in 1998, of which only 14 sold for a total of $36,398 his highest ever yearly total. When 11 of his paintings appeared for sale 15 years later in 2013 it was an entirely different story. Only one failed to find a buyer. All but two of these appeared in the sale of the legendary collection of Clive Evatt. Evatt, who had owed the Hogarth Galleries in Paddington, sold every one of his Mandarrk barks at Bonhams in 2013, with the highest price achieved being $6,100, the artist's second highest recorded price. 2017 represented a great year for the artist, with mossgreen offering 5 works, of which 3 sold for an averag price of $3,802. With of these works selling for 5,208 and making his third highest result at auction, he placed 70th amongst all aboriginal artists that year. Wally Mandarrk painted his simple iconic figurative barks for more than 30 years. Though there are many of them, no Aboriginal art auction seems quite complete without one or two nice examples. They have a natural earthy genuine appeal and are very reasonably priced. As such, they provide time depth and regional diversity to any Aboriginal art collection at an extremely affordable price. 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

MarikaWandj Wandjuk Marika Wandjuk Marika 1930 - 1987 Wondjuk, Wanjug, Wondjug, Djuakan, Wandjuk Djuwakan Marika, Wanjuk Marika, the eldest son of Mawalan Marika, was motivated throughout his life by an interest in, and understanding towards others along with a determination to use this understanding to fight for and protect his land. The Yolngu people of North-East Arnhem Land had a centuries old tradition of mutually beneficial trade with their Maccasan neighbours who regularly visited from Indonesia. Foreign influence was incorporated into their world-view, as often articulated in their art and mythology. As a young man Wandjuk was one of the first to learn English amongst his Rirratjingu clan, acting as an interpreter between his people and visiting missionaries, anthropologists and explorers. Arnhem Land had been proclaimed an Aboriginal Reserve in 1931, the year of Wandjuk’s birth, and was already studded with mission stations that were drawing Aboriginal people away from their traditional lands and encouraging them to live a sedentary existence. In the North East, the mission at Yirrkala was established in 1935 and within a year Rev. W.S. Chaseling began encouraging the local the Aborigines to create cultural material, including bark paintings, in exchange for tobacco and other trade goods. The mission authorities actively consulted in commissioning art and artefacts on behalf of visiting anthropologists and collectors, and dispatched these works to museums and marketing outlets in the southern states. As Wandjuk grew up it seemed to him that the value Europeans attributed to his people’s art indicated that they were concerned for the Rirratjingu’s survival and wellbeing. As a young man he provided a great deal of artwork and knowledge that was to become the material for many influential publications. He took explorers out to remote areas of interest, including the red bauxite sands that later became the centre of the most potent and contentious land rights issue in the Australia’s North East. He thought he was ‘helping out’ but in actual fact, no one gave anything substantial to him or his community. On the contrary, the often exploitative motives of the white ‘Balanda’ soon resulted in very unsatisfactory outcomes for his people indeed. 'I was sort of the leading man‘ he said of these times, ‘because I knew how to operate about the Balanda and talk to them‘ (Isaacs, 1995: 72). Realising his lands were under threat however, Wandjuk turned to fight for them, playing a leading role against the mining giant Nabalco. His understanding of the powerful connection between art and advocacy, by now well developed, became the means of defending his people and striving to keep their culture intact. He played a leading role in the creation of the Bark Petition of 1963, which brought, for the first time in Australia’s history, sacred paintings and ceremonial objects as evidence before the courts to demonstrate ancient and vital connections to the land. During the long struggle for land rights Wandjuk was the main conduit of communication between the elders of the different clans, including his father Mawalan, and the Balanda world. Destined for leadership of the Rirratjingu, art and ceremony were all-important elements of his life from an early age. His father Mawalan, senior custodian and tribal leader, passed on the sacred knowledge of their lands and religious ceremonies to Wandjuk. The important role of reaffirming cultural tradition and spiritual belief, as well as asserting his people’s fundamental connection to land increasingly under threat from European development, became his driving motivation. Wandjuk Marika was the custodian of Yalan'bara, the sacred Arnhem Land beach at which the Djan'kawu (Creator Ancestors) first stepped ashore and gave birth to the first people. The Djan'kawu are a brother and two sisters, creators of all Yolngu life, from whom Wandjuk claimed direct lineal descent over many generations as the eldest son of the eldest son. All Yolngu are divided into two groups, Dhua and Yirritja, who intermarry. All Dhua clans throughout Eastern Arnhem Land are descended from the original procreative acts of the Djan'kawu. In his paintings Wandjuk placed figures that elaborated mythological themes amongst the lines and patterns that provided the structure and identified them with a particular place and clan. The Rirratjingu clan design depicts the sun's rays shimmering over the sea, as this is the origin of their ancestral forefathers, the Djankawu. They came by canoe with the rising sun, two sisters and a brother, landing on the beach at Yalangbarra where digging sticks plunged into the sand brought forth springs of freshwater. They traveled across the land creating and naming its features and inhabitants and the two women, already pregnant, gave birth to the original people. Wandjuk painted this story in detail, demonstrating his clan’s ownership of, and connections to, the land at Yelangbarra. Another major epic he painted was the Wagilak Sisters, a moral tale of behavior and its consequences, inscribed in the features of the landscape and the creatures that live there. These creation stories were central themes in his paintings along with those that linked the Munyuku and the Marrakulu clans with the Rirratjingu. Wandjuk had rights to paint certain aspects of Marrakulu imagery, including the use of the clan's design. In 1975, Wandjuk became chairman of the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council. Shocked by secret, sacred designs on tea towels and t-shirts, Wandjuk worked towards and brought in legal recognition of Aboriginal copyright. Regularly called upon to assist in seeking official protection of sacred sites, he was often moved to tears by the loss of acknowledgement and the silencing of ‘the voices’ belonging to the area. ‘The land is full of knowledge‘ he said, grieving that’s its power and story were being too easily forgotten (Isaacs 1995: 142-147). Wandjuk was awarded an OBE by the Australian government and travelled the world as a cultural ambassador, contributing and advising on many projects to do with Indigenous affairs. During his later years, his busy public life began to deplete his energy which he felt still derived power from his spiritual source at Yalangbarra. In 1982, the National Gallery purchased most of the works from an important solo show in Sydney that traced the sacred endowment of his homelands. The proceeds financed his family’s move away from the distracting influences of the township at Yirrkala and back to the sacred beaches of the Djankawu ancestors. Houses were built, freshwater bores were sunk and Wandjuk relished life in the bush once again. He felt there was much learning to pass on to his many children. Although European influence has brought many adaptations and developments to bark painting, the essential designs remain consistent and still serve to teach deeper levels of meaning to his family and people. Wandjuk took ill and died suddenly in 1987. True to his lifelong negotiating role, his works, that grace many galleries and collections all over the world, still speak of his envisioned dialogue between changing worlds. It is difficult when compiling a list of the most important figures of all time to place those artists whose best works are locked up in institutions. Similarly many artists may have achieved great notoriety for their cultural influence beyond simply their art, or alternatively, may not produce the type of art that is easily bought and sold. Wandjuk is an artist who fits the description of the first two of these three categories. Only 19 of his works have appeared so far in the secondary market and the majority of these have been minor works, with seven of these failing to sell. Although his barks were included in the first commercial exhibition of paintings by Arnhem Land artists at the David Jones Art Gallery in 1949 the majority were purchased for major collections and included, over the years, in important touring exhibitions both here, in Australia, and overseas. These exhibitions are simply too numerous to mention, as there has hardly been an important exhibition that has included bark paintings in the last 30 years with at least one of his works. His two highest prices were set for bark paintings sold at Sotheby’s as long ago as 1997 while his fourth, sixth and seventh were set in 1997, 1996 and 1998 respectively. I cannot think of another artist that has a similar record in which the Aboriginal art boom between 2000 and 2007 seems to have completely passed them by. In fact, since 1998 only 12 works have appeared at auction of which no more than one work has sold in any one year other than 2004 when two paintings sold of three offered. However even these were minor works selling for a total value of as little as $2,760. Wandjuk’s record holding work is Djan’kuwu at Yalan’bara c.1959 which sold for $27,600 at Sotheby’s against a presale estimate of $12,000-18,000. The painting, related to a series of works painted for Dr. Stuart Scougall in 1959, depicting the Djan’kawu with Bowata, the Plains Turkey, the birthing of the Yolngu and milk fish on shore. The decorative in-filled patterning included white dots and cross hatching representing life force, sea foam, and the changing of the tide. His second highest priced work featured designs representing Rainmaking Snakes and totemic species associated with ‘pay back’. It also significantly exceeded its expectations when sold for $16,100 against an estimate of $7,000-10,000. All of his highest three records were painted between 1958 and 1960, long before the first Western Desert boards were created. Only one work has been offered twice. A nicely executed untitled bark featuring sand goannas and birds enclosed in tight striated cross hatching and measuring 121 x 39 cm was first offered at Sotheby’s in July 2003 with an estimate of $3,000-5,000 (Lot 343) but failed to sell. It appeared again at Sotheby’s the following July estimated at $2,000-4,000 and although passed in on the night, sold by private treaty the day after the sale for $1,800. Overall Wandjuk's works have enjoyed a reasonable clearance rate of 71% at an average price of $6,731. Yet he is a far more important figure in Aboriginal art than the mere sales total of $80,775 would imply. While it is unlikely that major works will appear all that often, watch out when they do. Should a really significant piece by this artist appear at any stage I would expect it to more than double his current record. 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

ANCESTORS FOOTSTEPS Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Gadigal, Redfern, NSW 2016 14 December 2023 - 13 January 2024 Viewing Room ANCESTORS FOOTSTEPS Artist: Joshua Bonson 14 December 2023 - 13 January 2024 Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Gadigal, Redfern, NSW 2016 JOSHUA BONSON Ancestors Footsteps Opening: Thursday 14 December, 6-8pm The minute I was flying over the ocean heading to the islands I could feel my ancestors with me. We were all filled with excitement and joy. Joshua Bonson is a three-time finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (2007, 2008, 2013). He won the Top End NAIDOC Artist of the Year in 2013, and followed it up by winning the Young Achievers Award NT main prize, as well as Artist of the year in 2014. His work is held in National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, and the TOGA Contemporary Art Collection in Australian and Berlin, to name a few. Standing in my Ancestor’s Footsteps is his third Solo Exhibition with Cooee Art Leven. View Catalogue JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE price AU$8,500.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN price AU$5,500.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: ARAFURA SEA price AU$4,400.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: KOEDAL SALTWATER CROCODILE price AU$3,000.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: OCEAN'S RHYTHM TORRES STRAIT price AU$800.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN price AU$600.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN Sold AU$0.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF MY COUNTRY Sold AU$0.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: TORRES STRAIT Sold AU$0.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: MY TOTEM price AU$6,000.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN price AU$5,500.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN price AU$4,400.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: KOEDAL SALTWATER CROCODILE price AU$2,500.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN price AU$600.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN price AU$600.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: OCEAN'S RHYTHM TORRES STRAIT Sold AU$0.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN Sold AU$0.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: OCEANS RHYTHM TORRES STRAIT Sold AU$0.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: SHIFTING TIDES price AU$5,500.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: OCEANS RHYTHM price AU$4,400.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN price AU$4,400.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN price AU$2,200.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN price AU$600.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN Sold AU$600.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: OCEAN CURRENTS Sold AU$0.00 JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: OCEANS RHYTHM TORRES STRAIT Sold AU$0.00 EX Ancestors Footsteps