DownsJarin Jarinyanu David Downs Jarinyanu David Downs 1925 - 1995 Jarrinyanu, Djarinyanu, Jorijonu, Downes Jarinyanu David Downs was one of those old cowboys who, like Rover Thomas, was born in the Great Sandy Desert in the 1920’s and eventually, toward the end of their lives, settled in the Kimberley region in the North West of Australia. He first moved from his traditional lands to the cattle stations in the 1940s, while still in his early twenties, to join the family of his promised bride. The next twenty years were spent droving cattle as well as occasionally working in the gold mines around Halls Creek. Jarinyanu’s first European boss bequeathed him his European name, David Downs, however when he eventually settled in Fitzroy Crossing, due to its proximity to the Wangkajunga country of his birth, he reverted to using his own real name. He first began working as an artist after moving to Fitzroy Crossing in the 1960's, decorating boomerangs, shields and coolamons. However it wasn’t until 1980 that he was commissioned to work on paper and canvas, using traditional ochres with natural resins as a binder. These initial works typically were dramatic dark silhouettes against a white acrylic background. Pictorial symbols were used to represent country and, though figures appear, they were merely one element within a larger composition, in contrast to the dominance of the figure in his later paintings. The influence of Christianity could be seen from the outset in many of his earliest works. The United Aboriginal Mission established in the 1950s at Fitzroy Crossing was a powerful presence in the community. As Jarinyanu’s career developed he developed a visual language that expressed his Christian beliefs coupled with a celebration of traditional law. He believed that as god created the natural world, it was perfectly acceptable to pay homage to his creation of the surrounding environment in accordance with its local cultural form. In doing so he created a relationship between Australian Christianity and specific cultural sites, which white Australia had neglected to identify. At the same time, he daringly depicted ancestral beings in human form, visualizing the once unseen Ngarrangkani (Dreaming) ancestors. The primary vehicle for expressing this two-way religious philosophy was the song cycle of Kurtal, the ancestral rain man. He was born on a distant island and traveled to the Kimberley as a cyclone. As he moved on inland he created places of ‘living water’ (permanent water sources) and visited other rain men, occasionally gaining valuable items from them through trickery and magic. The figure of Kurtal, often depicted with ceremonial headdress, and the participants in ceremonies relating to his story, appear constantly in Jarinyanu’s work. Other than his occasional canvases depicting Christian themes such as Whale Fish Vomiting Jonah 1993 and Jesus Preach’im All People 1986, it is the Kurtal figure that filled canvas after canvas until his death in 1995. Jarinyanu’s success at bridging two such separate cosmologies can be seen as part of a broader tradition of cultural exchange in the Kimberley, predating European contact. However, it is a sign of great triumph that his contact with Christianity did not weaken his commitment to ritual law. He was very conscious of himself as an artist. ‘I’m different’ he would claim, when describing himself. His peers would describe his directness by exclaiming, ‘he’ll tell you right out’ (Kentish 1995: 2) He had come to terms with the concept of individual fame brought keenly into focus by viewing his own work in art galleries, and the experience of having his portrait painted and hung in the Archibald Prize. His ability to negotiate his way in the white world no doubt had great influence on his success. He was one of three Walmajarri artists at Fitzroy crossing that began painting on canvas through private representation as individual artists. Jarinyanu along with Peter Skipper Jangkarti were represented by Duncan Kentish, whilst Jimmy Pike, whose career began in Fremantle prison in 1980, was represented by Steve Culley and David Wroth of Desert Designs. Individual representation brought many rewards, particularly solo exhibitions in galleries such as Bonython-Meadmore Gallery in 1988, Roar 2 Studios in 1991, Chapman Gallery in 1993, and Ray Hughes in Sydney in 1995, where always resplendent in his white shirt and pants, he was presented as a contemporary artist alongside non-Indigenous artists. Jarinyanu David Downs enjoyed a highly successful career encompassing sculptural artifacts, painting and a significant body of limited edition prints. He was one of the earliest Aboriginal artists to be individually represented and, at the time of his death, was considered one of the leading lights of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement. While David Downs’ success cannot be solely attributed to clever representation there is no doubt that he would never have achieved the degree of notoriety and acclaim had he not shared a special relationship with his agent and friend, Duncan Kentish. His unique imagery based on two vastly different religious traditions was conspicuous in galleries in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They first appeared at auction in 1997 when three sold of the four offered and, at their peak, went on to attract lofty prices on the secondary market. By 2001, six years after his death, 27 works had been offered for sale of which 21 had sold for a clearance rate of 78%, however, the story has been dramatically different since that time with his career clearance rate falling to 61% by 2011. In a bullish market, growing exponentially for all but a few major artists, a drop from a success rate of 78% to one of 61% appears to be dramatic. Catastrophic even, if you happen to own a work and want to sell it. While his record price at auction was set in 2000 for Kurtal Lying Down at Muwa 1988 which achieved $36,800 at Sotheby’s against a presale estimate of $18,000-25,000 Lot 121), the large number works that have been passed in at auction indicates clearly that vendors need to be far more realistic in their expectations if they wish to find a buyer. There have been exceptions, but they are extremely rare. Works featuring distinctly Christian imagery are more unique and less repetitious than paintings depicting Kurtal. Only three of these have been offered for sale at auction and all have sold. Whale Fish Vomiting Jonah 1993, measuring 112 x 137 cm fetched an impressive $14,950 in 1999, its desirability no doubt enhanced by the fact that it was being deaccessioned by the Holmes a Court collection and carried its code number. The two others were very small and sold for $4,800 and $3,600 when offered in Sotheby’s June 2004 sale (Lots 449 and 450). Lawson~Menzies sold a magnificent Ceremonial Shield c.1989 for $18 000 in May 2005 (Lot 8) some three times the estimated price. And in July 2006 Sotheby’s set the artist’s second highest price of $31,200 for a wonderful small work measuring just 91 x 61 cm that had been included in Niagara Galleries’ Blue Chip III collectors exhibition (Lot 91). These exceptions are, however, by and large deviations from the norm. Though good pieces can still receive significant sale prices, works in the medium range have moved little, and re-sales on the secondary market have proved unprofitable. Kurtal with Headdress of Radiating Wuring 1990 sold for $3,600 in 2004, just a fraction higher than its sale price of $3,450 in 1998, despite a significant jump in its estimate from $3,000-5,000 up to $6,000-9,000. This simply underlines the fact that attempts at raising the value on mid-range and high-end works as the years have progressed have been largely met with failure. Dance of Kurtal, which represents the artist's 5th and 6th highest results, depreciated in value by over $3,000 by the time of the second sale four years later, in 2007. David Downs was a unique and important artist who created a significant body of visually striking works. The relatively poor performance of his works at auction during the boom years 2004-2007 should not put collectors off from expressing interest in his works and buying selected pieces after deliberation. Many good works will be offered at far more reasonable estimates during the next decade. He is not an easy artist to access visually and many seem to find it difficult to discern the magnificent from the mundane. His images are an anomaly, as were Jimmy Pike's, in a region more renowned for lack of figuration. If you have any doubts about your own artistic intuition, then perhaps you are better placing your faith in safer waters, for many other artists are far easier to read. 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 Charlie Nangukwirrk < Back Charlie Nangukwirrk Charlie Nangukwirrk ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE CHARLIE NANGUKWIRRK - MIMIH SPIRIT SOLD AU$900.00 CHARLIE NANGUKWIRRK - LORRKON Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Charlie Nangukwirrk 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 Sam Tjampitjin < Back Sam Tjampitjin Sam Tjampitjin 1930 - 2004 ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE SAM TJAMPITJIN - TWO LARGE CLAYPANS SOLD AU$3,600.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Sam Tjampitjin 1930 - 2004 I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy. ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Sam Tjampitjin was an artist capable of truly remarkable paintings, yet he painted relatively generic works in equal measure, throughout a career that lasted no more than 14 years. In many ways, his highest three results exemplify the stylistic differences amongst his finest works. When looking at the emblematic Wirtinpiyi 1991 , a painting created at the beginning of his career and reproduced in several books, it is possible to see a direct line to paintings he and other Balgo men, most especially Tjumpo Tjapanangka and Helicopter Tjunurrayi, created after 2000. It is fascinating in this regard to look at pages 206-207 in Sotheby’s July 2005 Aboriginal Art catalogue where Sam Tjampitjin’s Wilkinkarra 2002 sits opposite Tjumpo Tjapanangka’s Kukurpungku 2000 . These two paintings, which could almost have been painted by the same hand, are indicative of the works created by these artists after their ‘return to country’ in 2000 and seem so much more alive and prescient than those produced before them. If ever there was a strong argument for facilities like the culture centres that enable artists to journey back to the source of their inspiration, this is it. The paintings created before seem flat, stale ethnographic museum pieces, when compared to paintings that are vibrant, alive and appear to sing. Of course there is a place for both, and only time will tell which endure and remain most popular amongst collectors. In Sam Tjampitjin’s case, foremost amongst these wonderful exceptions are the truly inspired Pitjandi Ceremony at Lunda 1994 and Kora, Great Sandy Desert, WA. 1995 , which was illustrated in Balgo New Directions by James Cowan (page 76). When the former was offered for the first time at Sotheby’s in 1997 (Lot 78) it set a record for the artist which stood for the following three years. $8,625 was a very high price for a 120 x 80 cm work from Balgo Hills at the time, yet, when it was re-offered nine years later in October 2006, Sotheby’s managed to attract just $9,600 (Lot 56). While this may have been a very disappointing result for the seller, the buyer, in my opinion, procured one of the bargains of the decade. It makes the artist’s record holding work look positively plain by comparison, despite its own virtuosic execution. While Landa Landa near Lake MacKay 1993 is a very good work, it can hardly be worth three times more than the better and larger 1994 painting. There have been a number of resales and reoffers amongst Sam Tjampitjin’s records. Two untitled 1994 works passed in at Sotheby’s November 2005 sale carrying estimates of $8,000-12,000 (Lot 158) and $7,000-10,000 (Lot 244) respectively. Both sold at Lawson~Menzies in June 2006 for $6,600 (Lot 76) and $6,000 (Lot 481) respectively, against presale estimates of $6,000-8,000. And a rather small 80 x 30 cm panel having failed to sell when first offered at Shapiro Auctioneers in December 2002 (Lot 228) with an estimate of $2,000-4,000, achieved $1,400 when reoffered at Lawson~Menzies in May 2004 for $1,000-1,200. Another untitled work created in 1992 failed to sell on two occasions impacting heavily on the artist’s success rate. Offered at $4,000-6,000 by Sotheby’s in October 2006 (Lot 133) the 100 x 75 cm work failed to sell once more when reoffered at Joel Fine Art in June 2007 (Lot 137). The 47 works by Sam Tjampitjin have met with very mixed results. Yet this is an artist whose best works are only ever likely to appear on rare occasions. His strongest periods were definitely during 1990 -1994, the first five years that he painted and 2000-2002 when he was profoundly affected by his return to his country. Works painted 1995 to 1999 seem generic and uninspired and works between 2002 and his death in 2004 indicate that he had become more and more infirm as he approached the end of his life. While only two paintings have sold for more than $10,000, collectors should expect anything special by this artist to soar in price over the next decade. His best works are rare gems and canny collectors should keep their eyes peeled for their appearance at sale. If they manage to acquire a piece like Pitjandi Ceremony at Lunda 1994 for under $30,000 they should be singing about it from the rooftops. 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 .

TjakamarraJohn John Kipara Tjakamarra John Kipara Tjakamarra 1932 - 2002 John John, Kiparra, Kurrpurra, Kuparu, Wingantjirri, Wanyuma, Wanyima, Tanalga, Jakamarra, Jagamara, Jakamara, Djakamara, John Kipara was born and grew up near Kulkuta west of Tjukurla north of the present-day community of Kiwirrkurra. He spent his youth in salt lake country, south-west of Lake Macdonald. His family had been one of the first groups to be re-settled at Papunya in the early sixties and after John encountered Europeans for the first time in his early 30’s he expressed his desire to join them. Shortly after arriving, John Kipara joined Anatjari Tjakamarra, Yala Yala Gibbs and Freddy West as a farm labourer and later became a founding member of the artist group that coalesced around Geoff Bardon in 1971. As the new style of painting on boards developed away from direct ceremonial references, John embraced the stories and designs of the Tingari ceremony and ancestors, becoming one of the mainstays amongst the Pintupi artists who produced this ‘classic’ iconography. Geoff Bardon remembered John Tjakamarra as a 'quiet and gentle man’ whose early paintings imitated the traditional sand mosaics that were instrumental in the preparation of traditional corroboree sites. His works of art, always executed in earthy ochre tones, were simple yet powerful in their composition. In most of his early paintings, the five-circle grids were linked by travelling lines from concentric circle to circle, reflecting the multiplicity of relationships between the land, the people and their spiritual ancestors. The U shapes denoted ceremonial men seated around sacred sites. John Kipara and other important Pintupi artists focused on this design as a result of ‘intercultural politics’(Myers, 2002: 64). The mythical travels and actions of the Tingari men and women were considered less culturally sensitive as subject matter for saleable art than those of other creator-beings which were of a more secret and sacred nature. His early paintings reflected the life force and spiritual essence he associated with his homeland area of Kulkuta and Namangka, and the Tingari ancestors who inhabited it. In 1972, he was one of four Pintupi men who assisted an Italian crew to make a film that dealt with the last traditional hunter-gatherers on earth. He was a lithe, handsome man at the time and, amongst the other Pintupi present, he was unmatched at reading the tracks of animals. He still regularly made spears and hunted kangaroos and other game with them. During the seventies, as the Papunya painting movement gathered momentum, John lived and worked at Yayayi, one of Papunya’s smaller outstations, slightly removed from the main area. Peter Fannin, the art advisor immediately after Bardon, would drive twenty-five miles out to the encampment where the artists would eagerly await his arrival, their recent works leaning up against trees or lying on spread blankets. It was a public event and the resulting payment for last month's sales noticeably boosted the resources of the community. The initial group of artists was granted a government painting allowance. They were greatly encouraged by the slowly growing public appreciation of their cultural riches, which, up until this time, had rarely been acknowledged. John worked closely with Yala Yala Gibbs and Freddy West, who were from the same homeland area. At times, they would work together on joint canvases as the concept of a personally created and owned artwork was new to them, as was the ‘white fella’s’ notion that they were building a ‘business’ together. These three men were joined by Charlie Tjapangati in working on a very large major Tingari canvas that was included in Australian Perspecta 1981, the centrepiece of the Australian contemporary art calendar at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Alongside three other Papunya paintings, art patrons were granted an introductory insight into the vast cultural and spiritual depths of the unknown interior. This was an important moment in the legitimization of Western Desert painting by the art establishment and, with gathering international interest, it became the catalyst for a re-appraisal of the identity of Australian art. Tjakamarra made an initial journey back to Kulkuta and Yawalyurru with a group of men that shared ownership of this homeland in June 1974. Finally in 1981, he followed the group of 300 men, women, and children who moved back to his Pintupi homelands to establish the community of Kintore. With the proceeds from his art sales, John Kipara lived and worked at Walungurru where Pat Hogan watched him effortlessly striding out on a hunting expedition in 1982, exhibiting skills he retained well into the 1990’s. After the 1980’s he painted fewer and fewer works and there is little evidence of his interest in painting at all after 1990, by which time he was the last remaining Papunya Tula shareholder living in the region around Tjurkurla. John Tjakamarra’s legacy lies in the classic Pintupi Tingari paintings he produced over a period of 30 years. Having grown to adulthood prior to contact and enduring only a short period of resettlement, John Kipara Tjakamarra spent the remainder of his life at his small outstation Walungurru, where he died in 2002 at seventy-two years of age, in the company of his immediate family. Those paintings by John Kipara Tjakamarra that are not in Museums and the most important private collections are relatively rare, most especially those created in the formative period of the Desert painting movement. Very few have been offered for sale and his records, such as they are, are peppered with repeat offerings. Travels of Tingari Ancestors 1972 was first offered for sale by Sotheby’s in June 1997 with an estimate of $15,000-20,000 (Lot 25) and later in June 2000 at $50,000-70,000 (Lot 107). The buyer, who originally paid $46,000, more than twice the high estimate, would have been a little disappointed given the costs involved in selling, despite it achieving $63,000 three years later. Similarly, an untitled 1972 work that had been exhibited in the landmark exhibition Papunya Tula, Twenty One Years, at the Araluen Art Centre in 1992, sold for $17,250 when estimated at $15,000-25,000 at Sotheby’s in 1997 sale (Lot 187). The vendor must have been shocked that Sotheby’s estimated it at just $20,000-30,000 a full nine years later, and devastated when it achieved just $24,000 (Lot No. 85). You would have been forgiven, in both cases, thinking that the works offered were completely different ones from those originally purchased, so vastly different were the colours of the illustrations in the catalogues. Two works that looked almost identical until close scrutiny experienced a very different fate. Men and Women 1972 measuring 71 x 51 cm achieved a staggering $101,500; a figure that has remained the artist’s record since 1998. It was an incredible result at the time, against Sotheby’s presale estimate of $30,000-50,000 (Lot 43). Yet in July 2004 an almost identical work Untitled c.1972 was estimated by Sotheby’s at just $10,000-15,000 (Lot 99), and sold for $18,000. Only three boards from the formative period have failed to find a buyer. One was a rather crudely executed ‘attributed’ work, Untitled (Kangaroo Story) c.1972 that was almost definitely not created by this artist despite its attribution at the time. It was offered at Sotheby’s in June 2002. Another was, without doubt, one of his finest. It was offered at a bargain estimate of just $15,000-25,000 at Sotheby’s in June 2000. (Lot 33). The depiction, in a work which was executed on the masonite interior lining of a car door, included sacred bullroarers and the participants gathered during ceremony. It had all the ethnographic and ‘outsider art’ qualities to excite the ardent collector. Yet it mysteriously failed to sell. Very little interest at all has been shown in any of his later works. In fact, works produced after he actually left Papunya and returned to his homeland have generally sold, but not sold well. As with most 1980s Papunya works, they fail to excite contemporary buyers and are overlooked by ethnophiles. The best of these, Snake Dreaming at Pilkartu 1987, achieved $12,000 which was squeezed out of the artist’s top ten results in 2009. Carrying Papunya Tula and Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi provenance, and measuring a healthy 183 x 122 cm, it sold at twice its high estimate. Nothing has matched the artsit's first three years on the secondary market. Between 1997 and 2000 all 12 works offered sold and his average price stood at $21,916. Since then, results have been far more ordinary. Between 2002 and 2003 all four works offered failed to find a buyer although things improved a bit between then and 2007 with eight works sold and five unsold. Fresh early works by this artist are unlikely to appear very often in the market and will always attract interest. Collectors would be well advised to avoid anything produced after 1980 unless it is spectacular. 2012 was a good example of this. A fine 1971 work Big Pintupi Dreaming entered his top ten results after selling for $29,280. John Kipara Tjakamarra did not develop further as an artist once separated from the intense creative environment of Bardon’s painting room. Like the early boards by other founding Desert painters, those by this artist attract a very specialized interest and, while they will always hold their value, their real interest should never be a financial one. The men who created them were the real deal, and this particular great old desert man just wanted to live out bush the way he had before he came into contact with white men and their curiosity about his ancient culture. 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

JOSHUA BONSON - TO CONNECT Cooee Art Redfern - 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 From 23 October to 13 November 2021 Viewing Room JOSHUA BONSON - TO CONNECT Artists: Joshua Benson From 23 October to 13 November 2021 Cooee Art Redfern - 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 This exhibition is a body of works that have been lovingly created over the past 12 months, a reflection of myself, my feelings, my family, and aspects of the place they were made. I created works to connect and to open windows into other people’s thoughts and to have them tell me what they see and feel. An opportunity for the audience to use their imagination to find something in my work that makes them think, feel, experience, and maybe share that with someone else. I want my artworks to generate stories that people connect over or around; I love hearing what people see in my paintings. Each work is a unique, with its own personality.They are all a part of me, enabling me to express myself, tell a story, start a conversation. The completed works are both contemporary abstractions in appearance but also embody indigenous traditions and meanings that stretch back over time. In our culture, there is a connection between people and families; kinship that can’t be described or translated in English. I capture those ties in my works, with my markings and the strokes of the brush. My heritage guides the stories captured.Textured streaks of acrylic create an element of flow, scaled perfection, they tell a personal story …. a portrayal of uniqueness, solidarity, and an acknowledgement of bloodlines. Thick slabs of paint applied generously float on water y surfaces, alluding to my people and totem, the saltwater crocodile. Sections of landscape, closeups, memories of places and times gone past and family. Each painting is a beautiful contemporary work that reflects my visual language, portraying its own personality with the use of texture, movement and colour. Everyone’s art is different, I try to be me, and create as I want to, the way I choose to. I hope everyone enjoys the works and are able to spend time with each piece.The thickly applied surface allows the painting to change as light shift across the canvas, becoming new and generating a fresh experience for the viewer every day. VIEW CATALOGUE EX 220

GLURPUNTA: FIGHTING SPIRIT 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 01 September to 01 October 2022 GLURPUNTA: FIGHTING SPIRIT Lily Hargraves Nungarayi 01 September to 01 October 2022 GLURPUNTA: FIGHTING SPIRIT Lily Hargraves Nungarayi 01 September to 01 October 2022 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 Lily Hargraves Nungarrayi (c.1930 - 2019) was one of the old desert walkers, born in the Tanami Desert in her country near Jilla Well (Chilla Well). When, in 1950, the Warlpiri population at Yuendemu had outgrown the settlement’s housing capabilities, Lily moved to the settlement of Lajamanu along with 1000 others. A tiny, very isolated point in the north of the Warlpiri estate, ten hour’s drive south of Darwin and eight hours north-west of Alice Springs. Here, Nungarrayi resided until her death in 2019. 1986 saw the first painting workshop for female artists in the Lajamanu community. Quickly, she established herself as a central figure of the newly established painting movement. Deeply involved in women's ceremonial practice and traditional law, Nungarrayi divided her time between hunting bush food and her daily work at the Warnayaka Art Centre, where the senior women chanted sat cross-legged on the canvas chanting their songlines as they painted their Dreaming stories. She painted with a restricted palette during the 1980s, depicting detailed ceremonial activities. As time progressed however, her work evolved into the highly colour charged and gestural style she is known and recognised for today. Nungarrayi became an esteemed senior Law woman, responsible for supervising women’s song and dance ceremonies. She was driven in her fervour to record and preserve her culture. Her love of colour and freedom of expression resulted in a distinctive style, executed with bold, confident brush work and a broad range of colour on minimal ground layers. Her remarkable works, predominantly depicting aspects of Ngalyipi (Medicine/snake Vine) Mala (Wallaby) and Karnta (Women’s dreaming), are included in the collections of important private and museum collections throughout Australia, USA and Europe. Judith Ryan, who was at the time the curator of Aboriginal Art for the National Gallery of Victoria, visited Lajamanu ahead of the exhibition ‘Paint Up Big’ in 1990. For the NGV, Ryan procured a set of pastels by the older women from the walls of the school library. When the paintings were taken down to be packed, Nungarrayi started tearing hers apart – “That one’s rubbish, I’m going to do you another one now.” The other ladies attempted to wrestle it from her. But Lily did not want what she regarded as her weak early work appearing in the National Gallery. ‘She’s a little person with a fiery temperament. She’s called Glurpunta, which means “fighting spirit”’. (personal communication by Christine Nicholls, headmistress at Lajamanu School in the 1980s, see Paint Up Big (Judith Ryan, NGV, 1990). VIEW CATALOGUE EX 239

Artist Profile for Lance James < Back Lance James Lance James ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE LANCE JAMES - BLACK BRUMBIES, WHITE MARES SOLD AU$2,350.00 LANCE JAMES - GHOST GUM NEAR DOCKER RIVER SOLD AU$950.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Lance James 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 Violet Petyarre < Back Violet Petyarre Violet Petyarre 1945 ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE VIOLET PETYARRE - AWELYE BODY PAINTING Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Violet Petyarre 1945 Violet Petyarre (with her brothers and sisters) has custodial rights of the Arnkerrth Dreaming (Mountain Devil Lizard), which together with its associated narrative, is referenced in all of her works. Violet Petyarre's artistic endeavors commenced 1977 with Batik tie-dying and woodblock printing techniques, in which her Dreaming references were burnt into wood with hot wire and then ‘stamped’ onto fabric. Colours were then applied and these bright fabric panels were then sewn into garments that were welcomed by the Utopia women. As with other Utopia women, Violet Petyarre’s first works-on-canvas evolved through a special local project entitled ‘Utopia Women’s Paintings - A Summer Project 1988-1989’ (The Holmes a’ Court Collection). This project engendered a new direction of artistic output, launching Utopia as a major centre for Indigenous art and placing it firmly within the context of the Australian contemporary art scene. Violet Petyarre’s role as a foundation member of the Utopia arts community together with her artistic individualism has firmly endorsed her position as an important contributor to Australia’s art history. Collection: Artbank, Sydney Museum of Victoria, Melbourne The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth Group Exhibitions: 2004 - Art Aborigine Pour Tous, Galerie DAD, Mantes-la-Jolie, France. 1997 – Songlines Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherhlands. 1996 – Gallerie Australis, Adelaide, Australia. 1992 - Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs. 1991 - Aboriginal Women's Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. 1990 - Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Center for the Arts, United States of America; The Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth; Utopia - A Picture Storyan exhibition of 88 works on silk from the Holmes a Court Collection by Utopia artists, which toured Ireland and Scotland. 1988-89 - S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney. 1989 - Utopia Women's Paintings, the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project. 1988 - The Fifth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. Bibliography: Brody, A., 1989, Utopia Women's Paintings: the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project, 1988-89, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings, Perth. (C). Brody, A., 1990, Utopia: a Picture Story, 88 Silk Batiks from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Heytesbury Holdings Ltd, Perth. (C). Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales. (C). Nicholls, Christine, The Bold and the Beautiful – the Work of Violet Petyarre, Crossings, the Journal of the International Association of Australian Studies, University of Queensland, December 2002. Nicholls, Christine, 'Home and Away with Kathleen and Violet Petyarre, or, Travels with my aunts', Art Monthly Australia, Number 138, April 2001, Canberra, pp. 16-20. 1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings Ltd., Perth. 1991, Aboriginal Women's Exhibition, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. 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 .

MICHAEL JALARU TORRES | TETHER Location: Cooee Art Paddington & Online From 21 April to 16 May 2020 Viewing Room MICHAEL JALARU TORRES | TETHER Artist: Michael Jalaru Torres From 21 April to 16 May 2020 Location: Cooee Art Paddington & Online Muluymuluy was the young wife of Wakuthi Marawili, one of the oldest and most revered elders in Arnhem land. Known as Banbay, ”blind one”, because of his poor eyesight, Wakuthi passed away on 2005. Today his sons Djambawa (winner of the 2019 Testra Art Award) and Nuwandjall play a large role in the day to day management of the large Madarrpa clan homeland, Yilpara and Muluyumuluy works with them producing important Madarrpa clan paintings. Her sister Mulkun Wirrpanda is also a senior artist. Muluymuluy holds extensive knowledge of native plants of North East Arnhem Land and her artwork embodies this knowledge. Amongst the plant species represented in her works, are berries, yams and other edible species including Buwakul (native grape), Dilminyin (scaly ash), and Ganguri/Manmuna (long yam). Her bark paintings depict Bulwutja, which grows in and around the billabongs and swampy areas on Madarrpa land. The plants grow in clumps after the rains and are pulled out in clumps, cooked underground or on coals, then mashed into a blackish grey paste that is tasty and nutritious. This paste can also be baked into a bread. VIEW CATALOGUE EX 199

Artist Profile for Dianne Strangways < Back Dianne Strangways Dianne Strangways ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE Dianne Strangways 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 Jane M Tipuamantumirri < Back Jane M Tipuamantumirri Jane M Tipuamantumirri ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE JANE M TIPUAMANTUMIRRI - WOMEN'S CEREMONY SOLD AU$1,000.00 JANE M TIPUAMANTUMIRRI - TOKAMPINI BIRDS AND FISH SOLD AU$900.00 JANE M TIPUAMANTUMIRRI - BODY PAINT SOLD AU$750.00 JANE M TIPUAMANTUMIRRI - PAMAJINI SOLD AU$360.00 JANE M TIPUAMANTUMIRRI - WOMEN'S CEREMONY Sold AU$0.00 JANE M TIPUAMANTUMIRRI - WOMEN'S CEREMONY Sold AU$1,000.00 JANE M TIPUAMANTUMIRRI - BODY PAINT SOLD AU$750.00 JANE M TIPUAMANTUMIRRI - BODY PAINT SOLD AU$750.00 JANE M TIPUAMANTUMIRRI - BODY PAINT SOLD AU$330.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Jane M Tipuamantumirri 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 .

NamatbaraPaddy Paddy Compass Namatbara Paddy Compass Namatbara 1890 - 1973 Nabadbara, Namadbara, Nobadbara Paddy Compass Namatbara began painting at the Methodist mission at Minjilang (Croker Island) from its very inception in 1941. The centre was a melting pot of tribal groupings, and though Paddy, then in his early fifties, was not of the dominant Kunwinjku people, he became part of a dynamic group of artists, which by the late 1950’s included Yirawala, Midjaw Midjaw and Nangunyari Namiridali. These artists found that the Methodist mission on Croker Island allowed them a greater degree of artistic freedom in comparison to the mission at Oenpelli. Painting through the 1960's, the group came to the forefront of modern bark painting, in part, due to their close alliance with a number of visiting anthropologists and regular visits by Dorothy Bennett and others who collected barks for sale. Karel Kupa came to Minjilang in 1963, following in the footsteps of anthropologists Charles Mountford and Ron and Catherine Berndt, who had visited in 1948 and 1949. Kupa’s presence impacted upon the artists chosen style and subject matter, particularly in the depiction of themes of sorcery, previously suppressed by the mission. Paddy produced rare images of Mimih and spirit figures imbued with the physical deformations, transferred to the intended victim, when accompanied by songs and ceremony. Alongside, this darker connotation, sorcery spirits are also highly imbued with sexual tension and humour, as ‘Kunwinjku relate tales of their ribald exploits' (Taylor 2004: 118). In Paddy’s Spirit Figures c.1960 he depicts a male figure with a sub-incised member of huge proportion, leering towards the protruding genitals of the female figure adorned with pubic hair. It is a work of playful lust, the sexual energy only heightened by the artist’s ability to imbue the image with a sense of rhythmic movement through the depiction of its stringy undulating figures. It is the dynamic energy of Paddy Compass’s paintings that set his works apart from that of his fellow painters. In contrast Midjaw Midjaw preferred symmetry and Namiridali bold black and white bands across figures standing static in nature. The group however, shared many stylistic conventions primarily derived from the tradition of rock painting, where sorcery figures originated amongst the secluded rock escarpments of Western Arnhem Land’s stone country. Common characteristic’s of rock painting found in Paddy’s work includes the coarsely applied white paint in silhouette, adorned with bold dots or crosshatching. The background in his works invariably remains plain and unadorned other than the occasional red ochre wash rubbed into the barks surface. His works created in an X-ray style are also closely affiliated with rock painting and part of a key movement in Western Arnhem Land bark painting. By revealing the interior of human and animal forms Western Arnhem Land artists could convey and exchange bodies of knowledge and demonstrate how animals were divided according to ritual and social obligation. This applied particularly to hunting and increase rituals. While Paddy and others depicted many totemic animals prized by hunters, the vast majority of rock paintings are of fish. They indicate the different parts of the fish that were most prized and comprise a visual iconography that artists developed as a symbolic aid in dividing the sections of the animal correctly. Paddy’s early work, Saratoga 1947, is a prime example. In this and his other works Paddy displayed the diverse functions that artistic practice plays in Western Arnhem Land culture, ranging all the way from comical relief to scientific instruction. The public’s growing recognition of this diversity in purpose and sentiment has transformed the perspective with which they view Indigenous art. The humanistic sentiment of these quirky lustful figures provides a medium in which the outside viewer can relate to the artist, despite the vast gulf in cultural understanding between them. It is as if sexuality and its incumbent awkward humour can transcend culture, for it strikes at the very base of what it is to be human. By seeing a shared humanity in the paintings of Paddy Compass Namatbara, outside audiences could come to terms with the personal imprint within the work, transforming it from a relic of an ancient culture into something alive and of the moment. Other than ethnographic enthusiasts familiar with the Ruhe and Louis Allan collections or lucky enough to have seen the works in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, the wider audience for contemporary Aboriginal art would have been largely unaware of Paddy’s Compass’s paintings until a series of eight barks were included in the Crossing Country exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2004. All were of Mimih spirits up to kinky business. The following year on the secondary market, a work of similar sentiment Spirit Figures c.1960, sold for $33 400, at Sotheby's in July for a figure some six times its sale price of $5,175 in 2000. This record price is still well above the $19,200 achieved by Sotheby’s in July 2007 for Maam (Malignant Spirit) c.1960 despite this work selling above its high estimate. There is however a big drop to his next record and those thereafter. The next highest result was achieved at Sotheby’s in 2010 with the sale of Death of Kundaagi selling for $9,600. The absence of a gradual rise in sales between 2000 and 2005 can, however, be attributed to a lack of work in his signature style on offer. While the differentiation between the two styles is a compelling explanation, Sotheby’s, which has sold 14 of the 16 works to date, have shown some inconsistency in their attribution and estimates. When a 46 x 135 cm bark of a Saratoga fish was first offered for sale in 2002 it was given the very specific date of 1947 yet it failed to attract interest when carrying a presale estimate of $7,000-10,000 (Lot 284). In July 2007 it appeared once more at Sotheby’s estimated at $3,000-4,000 (Lot 239). Now titled Saratoga c.1960 it sold just below the high estimate for $3,840. The market preference for spirit figures and sorcery images with overt sexual overtones is due to a number of factors. This includes their scarcity, due to attempts by certain missions to curb such subject matter. But also, and perhaps more importantly in the context of artistic developments amongst Western Arnhem Land bark painting, the history of bark painting is marked by a trajectory from figuration to increasing abstraction. This has found its current climax in the works of Kunwinjku artist John Mawurndjul, who abandons the figurative all but completely. In recent years the art world has rewarded the intricate visions of Mawurndjul with unparalleled praise. Yet, in what at first seems to be a paradox, works by Paddy Compass and Yirawala receive applause precisely for their direct contrast to these abstracted visions. In the animated energy of their spirit beings we can see the origins of what has followed, and delight in the fruits of a fascinating dynamic and evolving culture. 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