Artist Profile for Virginia Napaljarri Sims < Back Virginia Napaljarri Sims Virginia Napaljarri Sims ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE VIRGINIA NAPALJARRI SIMS - MINA MINA JUKURRPA (MINA MINA DREAMING) Sold AU$200.00 VIRGINIA NAPALJARRI SIMS - MINA MINA JUKURRPA (MINA MINA DREAMING) Sold AU$200.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Virginia 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 .

SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY | BIRRMUYINGATHI MAALI NETTA LOOGATHA From 07 September to 11 September 2022 Viewing Room SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY | BIRRMUYINGATHI MAALI NETTA LOOGATHA From 07 September to 11 September 2022

THAT'S TRUE THAT'S CREATION 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 09 August - 01 September 2022 THAT'S TRUE THAT'S CREATION Queenie McKenzie Nakara 09 August - 01 September 2022 THAT'S TRUE THAT'S CREATION Queenie McKenzie Nakara 09 August - 01 September 2022 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 Queenie McKenzie Nakara was born on Old Texas Station on the Ord River in the north west of Western Australia. As a young girl she began her life of cooking for the stockmen, tending and riding horses, and journeying as they drove cattle across the vast pastoral region of the north. During the 1970s, McKenzie, then in her fifties, played a leading role in community affairs and experimented with representational art as an educational tool in the local school. She taught Gija language and cultural traditions as part of the ‘two-way’ education given at the school. Besides helping to maintain ancient knowledge of sacred sites and the Dreaming mythology, it seamlessly paralleled bible stories and provided the young with both a spiritual awareness and an involvement in community activities. Queenie McKenzie Nakara earned world wide acclaim with distinct and influential artworks depicting the country of her childhood and early working life around Texas Station, as well as other sites throughout the East Kimberley region. She was in her lifetime, and still to this day, recognised as a spiritual and cultural icon, whose commitment to art has left an indelible impact on Australian history and culture. The works on paper in this exhibition were all created at the Warmun school in 1995. McKenzie chronicles encounters with God in the Kimberly, perhaps in the form of Bishop Jobst who at the time had recently visited – “Mr. Jobst from Broome is our Leader Man the God Man He’s from the Cloud […]” – or as the “God in the Cloud” looking down from the Heavens and weeping because the students are “Just mucking about too much” instead of going to school. In this suite, McKenzie marries traditional Gija culture with missionary-imported Christianity. The mythology is a lot more practical than mainstream Christianity, as is the case in many Australian Aboriginal belief-systems, be it tracing maps to water sources created by living spirits, or utilising concrete teaching stories around survival and food gathering The series relates a connection to the Christian God much more practical and immediate than is common. Here, the Holy Trinity (consisting of some version of Jesus Man, The God Man/God in the Cloud, and the God Jesus Baby) resides closer to Earth, with a concrete impact on daily life, as when Jesus “Pushes the School Bus Toyota” when it stalls. This God doesn’t feel all-powerful. He borrows a camel from the three wise men. He can smile over the “Bible Dance” and despair as the children “Muck About.” McKenzie’s God takes part in the everyday. VIEW CATALOGUE EX 241

TjakamarraOld M Old Mick Wallankarri Tjakamarra Old Mick Wallankarri Tjakamarra 1910 - 1996 Jakamarra, Jagamara, Jakamara, Djakamara, Wallankarri, Walangkari, Walandari; Shakey Mick, Squeaky Mick Born at Watikipinrri, west of central Mount Wedge, Mick Walankari had a mixed tribal background and is thought to have been one of the last surviving Kukatja of the Central Desert region. Having worked on cattle stations at Glen Helen and Narwietooma stations before being re-settled at Papunya and being able to speak English well, he often acted as a negotiator in the community. He became an important figure in the genesis of the Papunya Tula art movement because of his seniority and great knowledge of traditional designs and stories. He was acknowledged as an important ceremonial leader, always maintaining a strong tribal interest and providing a wealth of knowledge to his younger protégés. Even before the painting group was formed, he had been involved in supervising Kaapa Tjampitjinpa who was producing images for ceremonial purposes. When the idea for the school murals were first conceived by Geoff Bardon, it was Old Mick, already a pensioner and Kaapa who, followed by a small group of whispering men, handed Bardon the scrap of paper, ‘…smaller and narrower than a matchbox, almost unreadable in its smallness,’ that showed the Honey Ant design (Carter in Perkins 2000: 252). It was from this humble beginning that the outpouring of cultural expression became the Western Desert art movement began. It took a while for Bardon to earn the trust of Old Mick who, as time progressed, became invaluable in providing the meanings behind the paintings. Anxiety over the disclosure of secret, sacred designs had prompted the development of a defined style suitable for public viewing. Within these strictures, intense experimentation was underway and the early Papunya works that were produced have been unequalled in their vigour and intensity since that time. On their most literal level, these paintings are maps, charting the vast terrain of the Western Desert from a uniquely experiential perspective, born of a deep spiritual connection to the land. Like traditional low relief ground sculptures, an outline was drawn first. The ‘traveling line’ gave the story its contours and reflected the momentum that was intrinsic to survival in the desert. It would find its resting place in circles (waterholes, encampments or sacred sites). Colour and texture were added and the distinctive Western Desert dots, like a scratching or stroking of the surface. Early dotting, as seen in Old Mick’s work, was not particularly neat or symmetrical. Dots came in clusters, often seeming to change direction as they encompassed the story components and allowed different areas to converge. The use of fingers in the making of marks seemed to Bardon a haptic mode of understanding and articulating story. It carried the heightened emotional energy of ceremonial dance. ‘It often seemed to me,’ he wrote, ‘that the Western Desert archetypes and hieroglyphs in 1971 were enacting the landscape which they were writing down…the painted forms seemed to breathe up from the painted surface. A silent singing of the great ritual, ’ (Bardon 2004: 45). The first sales of these works amazed the fledgling group of painters and spurred them on to new levels of concentrated activity. Old Mick’s paintings are compelling in their palpable sense of élan and played a vital role in inspiring other painters. A certain roughness of technique accentuates the strength of his work, as if the painter was responding directly to his muse (his country) rather than to his anticipated audience. A wealth of detail often prompts a closer reading. In Old Man’s Dreaming of Death 1971, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Old Mick elucidated the passing between the earthly and spirit world in a solemn but warm and beautifully balanced symbolic rendition. The old man, represented by black half circles, lies in front of his campfire, accompanied by his sacred objects. He refuses earthly sustenance but his spirit is alive and strong. His black Tjuringa is counter-balanced by a red ochre Tjuringa that represents his totemic ancestor who facilitates entry into the eternal world through a meditative practice. Old Mick’s Papunya works were the first to be collected by the National Gallery of Australia, and were featured in the Asia Society’s Dreamings: Art of Aboriginal Australia exhibition which toured North America in 1988-1989. Although he was forced to give up painting by the early 1980’s due to failing eyesight and bad health, Old Mick Tjakamarra taught and strongly influenced a number of ‘second wave’ artists, most importantly Maxie Tjampitjinpa and Don Tjungurrayai. His art and influence continues to provide the wellspring of an ancient tradition that feeds the vision of contemporary Papunya artists to this day. As would be expected for an artist of such influence during the formative period of the Desert painting movement, nine of Old Mick Walankari Tjakamarra’s ten highest results are for works that were created during 1971-1973. His work first appeared at auction as early as 1993 when a small 25 x 35 cm work entitled Women’s Croborree was offered at Joel’s with an estimate of just $600-700 but surprisingly failed to sell. The following year Yintulkanyu-The Artist’s Country, also failed to find a buyer while Women’s Story estimated at $4,000-6,000 sold at Sotheby’s for $10,350 (Lot 99). Only 37 works have sold of the 48 offered to date and several of these have been resales. With so few works having been offered for sale, only two early 1970s paintings fall outside of his top twenty results. The first was painted at Papunya in September 1971 for Geoffrey Bardon and illustrated in his major book, Papunya, A Place made after the Story. When presented in 2008 the irregular 53.5 x 20.5 cm board entitled Water Dreaming sold at Sotheby’s October sale for $7,800 (Lot 313). The other was a skinny and rather crude 1973 rendition of a corroboree at Mount Wedge offered as early as 1997 that achieved just $3,220, despite being accompanied by a diagram and notes produced by Peter Fannin at the time of its creation. In that same year, 1997, Sotheby’s offered two other works for sale. Old Man’s Dreaming 1972 achieved $27,600 and Big Caper 1972, a rather complex work depicting an important cave site, sold for $20,700 making the Coroboree at Mount Wedge, despite its lowly price, the artists fifth highest result at that time. Big Caper 1972 carried a presale estimate in 1997 of $15,000-20,000, but when it reappeared at Sotheby’s five years later in 2002 its estimate reflected only a modest increase in value to just $20,000-30,000. Sotheby’s conservative estimate resulted in its sale for just $24,000. The painting rendered in powder pigment on composition board, despite its contrasting iconography against a black background, was not nearly as alluring as the powerfully iconographic Untitled 1971 painting sold in 1996 by Sotheby’s for $48,300 (Lot 233), which is still Old Mick’s highest record. It seems hard to believe, given the buoyancy of the Aboriginal art market during the subsequent years and the enormous increases in price achieved for paintings created by many of his contemporaries, that his record prices have not been transcended in two decades. Even more surprising when one considers that this same work, despite its previous result reappeared at Sotheby’s in 2006 carrying an estimate of just $20,000-30,000, sold for only $28,800 (Lot 77). By this time it had been renamed Rain Ceremony having been illustrated in the book on the origins of the Western Desert art movement published in 2004 by Miegunyah Press, together with a diagram of Bardon’s original field notes, surely reason enough to increase its presale estimate significantly. Without doubt the purchaser secured one of the bargains of the decade. Only one early work of high value, has failed to sell. Bush Tucker Story 1972, a stylistically more complex example than others of the period, carried a pre sale estimate of $20,000-30,000 when offered by Sotheby’s in July 2001 (Lot 159). However since that year, when both of the works offered remained unsold, 22 of the 26 paintings and carved artifacts by Old Mick have found willing buyers. Given the fact that his three lowest results were for artifacts sold in 2000 through Goodman’s Auctioneers for $690, $460 and $403 respectively, Old Mick’s average price looks very good indeed. Despite these three low value items, this average stands at $10,779, which considered along with his 79% success rate at auction makes his works highly collectable investments. His results during the last 20 years confirm their desirability. In 2007 all five works offered sold, with Tree Corroboree 1971 and Women’s Story at Yalukuru 1974 becoming both making his top ten. While Old Mick Walankari’s paintings are not numerous, they have powerful imagery, rarity, and historical status. Those fortunate enough to own one of his better works should hold on to them for as long as they continue to derive pleasure from them. They are unlikely to be able to replace them for the currently prevailing values, which seem extremely low by comparison to others by his equally talented contemporaries. As long as vendors insist on high estimates when they consider who to entrust with their sale, they are unlikely to be disappointed with the result. 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

New Works By | Stephen Brameld & Jay Staples Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Redfern, Gadigal / Sydney 3 - 26 April 2025 New Works By | Stephen Brameld & Jay Staples 3 - 26 April 2025 New Works By | Stephen Brameld & Jay Staples 3 - 26 April 2025 Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Redfern, Gadigal / Sydney 'New Works By' is a solo exhibition by Walyalup (Fremantle) artist duo Stephen Brameld and Jay Staples, recipients of the 2024 Art Leven award as part of the Paddington Art Prize. As self-taught artists practicing in painting, sculpture and video, Brameld and Staples simultaneously work on the same artwork until they reach a point of mutual recognition. Their work explores improvisation, shared consciousness, regeneration and mysticism through a rugged workshop-like approach to painting and sculpting, using a wide array of materials. PDF Catalogue RSVP Opening ART COLLECTOR ARTICLE STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - STUDIO CURTAINS price AU$12,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - PORK LOIN price AU$7,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - BLK 12OZ price AU$6,500.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - KICKING CANS Sold AU$6,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - WALTZ DOWN SLIP STREET price AU$8,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - NOIO Sold AU$7,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - FOOTBALL GUERNSEY price AU$6,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - PERFUME BOTTLE Sold AU$6,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - BLUE DOTS price AU$8,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - CHINATOWN HANDBAG price AU$7,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - PLATFORM ON THE OCEAN Sold AU$6,000.00 STEPHEN BRAMELD & JAY STAPLES - THE MOON, THE BOY AND THEIR SHADOW Sold AU$0.00 ExNewWorks

The Rod Menzies Estate | Indigenous Art Collection | Auction Part II Cooee Art Leven 17 Thurlow Street Redfern Tuesday 5th March 2024 The Rod Menzies Estate | Indigenous Art Collection | Auction Part II Tuesday 5th March 2024 The Rod Menzies Estate | Indigenous Art Collection | Auction Part II Tuesday 5th March 2024 Cooee Art Leven 17 Thurlow Street Redfern It's a Wrap! Two years after his death, the late Rod Menzies’ collection of Australian Aboriginal art has been sold in its entirety. Menzies’ flirtation with Australian Aboriginal art began in 1999, when he hired Melbourne specialist Vivien Anderson to break into the increasingly lucrative Aboriginal art market that had grown from $715,000 in 1994 to $5.4 million. Anderson held only 2 sales in 1999 and 2000. In 2003 Menzies charged Aboriginal art dealer Adrian Newstead with the task of heading Menzies’ Aboriginal art department. In a self-described audacious move, Newstead widened the range of art on offer, securing works through his extensive dealer network. With Christies and Mossgreen entering the market in 2004, Australian Aboriginal art sales grew from $6.9 million at the start of the millennium to $26.5 million by 2007 with 60% generated through Adrian Newstead’s Menzies, and Tim Klingender’s Sotheby’s, sales. In 2008, with the Global Financial Crisis, Newstead, and Menzies parted ways. The art bubble had burst and several competitors departed the field while others were in decline. The secondary market for Aboriginal art dropped year on year until it reached its’ nadir in 2014 at just $5.7 million. Nine years later in 2017, Cooee Art Auctions debuted, with Newstead and then business partner Mirri Leven at the helm. The venture began with a bang when Emily Kngwarreye’s Earth’s Creation I, sold for $2.1 million. The painting, which set the Australian record price for any Aboriginal artwork in 2017, is still the most valuable painting ever sold by any Australian Female artist. In its first year operating as an auction house Cooee’s sales topped $2.6 million. Leven is now sole owner of the gallery and, going forward, head of the auction house. With the death of Rod Menzies in April 2022, the Menzies heirs agreed to entrust Newstead with the task of disbursing the father’s extensive 240 work Aboriginal art collection. Though he had sold his share of Cooee art to Mirri Leven by February 2023, Newstead remained in his position as head specialist on The Rod Menzies deaccession sales Parts I and II, which were held in November 2023 and March 2024. The sales realised a total of $3 million incl BP with 100% of all lots sold. About the Auction We are pleased to introduce the March 5th auction, headlining Part II of the Indigenous art collection of the late Rod Menzies. Part 1 of the special deaccession offering was held in November 2023 and saw all 103 artworks on offer sold, achieving 130% of the sale’s total pre-sale value. Rod Menzies took an assertive financial interest in the stock that he consigned. He amassed and cared for an impressive collection of Australian Indigenous artworks which were on permanent display at Noorilum, his estate located between Seymour and Shepparton in Central Victoria. Menzies was continually growing audiences for Indigenous and Australian art. He toured his finest Indigenous artworks in the exhibition, ‘Masterworks from the Menzies Collection’ to regional galleries throughout Australia between 2006 and 2008. It included several of the large-scale paintings that were included in our November sale along with others that are on offer in this Part II catalogue. Artworks that toured in this sale are: Maggie Napangardi Watson’s Mina Mina Dreaming, 1995 (Lot 34); Judy Watson’s, Women’s Dreaming, 1995 (Lot 35), and two works by Ronnie Tjampitjinpa - Water Story (Lot 33) and Tingari Dreaming, 1997 (Lot 66). Several of the artworks included in this offering currently hold, or have previously held, the artist’s market records, meaning when purchased they sold for the highest amount any artwork by the artist has sold for. Our cover lot is one such work. Purchased by Rod Menzies in 2008, this large-scale piece depicting aspects of the Mina Mina Dreaming by Maggie Watson (Lot 34) holds the artist’s sold record when last sold for $348,000. The on-going rationalisation of the considerable Rod Menzies estate holdings includes hundreds of important Australian and International paintings, real estate, and a large range of additional assets. For this reason, Mina Mina Dreaming carries a pre-sale estimate of just $90,000 to $150,000 in this deceased estate sale. Preceding the 87 works in this final tranche of the Menzies Indigenous art collection are a small number of selected pieces being offered from mixed private vendors. These include a lovely watercolour depicting Glen Helen Gorge by Albert Namatjira, carrying an estimate of $30,000-40,000, (Lot 9); and paintings by John Mawurndjul, Kitty Kantilla alongside several pieces by Emily Kam(e) Kngwarray(e) whose solo exhibition is currently on view at the National Gallery of Australia and will be shown in 2025 at the Tate Modern in London. Emily Kngwarreye’s artworks are becoming more and more scarce in the market. We look forward to welcoming you during the viewing at Cooee Art Leven’s Redfern galleries for this one-of-a-kind deaccession sale of the Menzies collection. LOTS 1 - 14 INDIGENOUS FINE ART I PROPERTY OF MIXED VENDORS LOTS 15 - 101 INDIGENOUS FINE ART I THE ROD MENZIES ESTATE INDIGENOUS ART COLLECTION PART II View Auction Results View Auction Online Auction PDF Catalogue Auction14

INDIGENOUS FINE ART AUCTION Cooee Art Paddington | 326 Oxford Street Paddington NSW 2021 23 June 2020 | 7PM Start INDIGENOUS FINE ART AUCTION 23 June 2020 | 7PM Start INDIGENOUS FINE ART AUCTION 23 June 2020 | 7PM Start Cooee Art Paddington | 326 Oxford Street Paddington NSW 2021 Cooee Art MarketPlace introduces its sixth bi-annual Australian Indigenous fine art Auction, the only multi-vendor live auction of its kind. The sale comprises 97 fine Australian Indigenous artworks, including works on canvas, bark paintings, and sculptures, created in regions throughout Australia from as early as the 1950s by artists of great renown. These artworks, ranging in value from $500 to $80,000, have been selected from over 20 national and international collections. The sale includes a small but extremely rare Wandjina bark by Alec Mingelmanganu (Lot 15), a superb large watercolour by Albert Namatjira (Lot 20), the largest work ever created by Balgo Hills artist Elizabeth Nyumi (Lot 48), a spectacular large painting by Peg Leg Tjampitjinpa (Lot 36), a range of early Arnhem Land bark paintings and sculptures, and Kimberley ochre works by Rover Thomas, Freddie Timms, Queenie McKenzie, Rammey Ramsey, Jack Dale, Lena Nyadbi, and others. Due to uncertainty surrounding lockdown restrictions there will be no preview night. All works will be on display at 326 Oxford Street, Paddington, and can be viewed by appointment. VIEW THE CATALOGUE VIEW RESULTS WATCH THE VIDEO

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

SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY 2021 - NOT SO VIRTUAL From 11 November to 27 November 2021 Viewing Room SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY 2021 - NOT SO VIRTUAL From 11 November to 27 November 2021 The role of art is to reflect, grow, and shape culture. Artists challenge norms and shape the cultural zeitgeist. Artistic groups are formed against the backdrop of their time and place. Usually in hindsight, if their contribution becomes clear and definable, we categorise these groups in specific artistic movements. Indigenous Australian art is usually referred to, from a distance, as a movement. The term implies that the creative period has passed and that it belongs not in contemporary art galleries but in museums, carefully archived and displayed behind glass. Even some in the industry treat the art as something drawn from a finite and dwindling pool, as though the “movement” consists only of the trailblazer Aboriginal artists. But even the originators of Australian Aboriginal art as we know it are not finished driving and re-contextualising the creative process that is overdue to be seen as a contemporary art form rather than an anthropological one. Australian Indigenous artists have been creating art separate from and connected to each other for thousands of years, in places related to each other as neighbouring countries rather than regions of the same state. It continues to evolve, as it always has, as a contemporary art form. These works have been selected to highlight this point in a condensed form. The six artists showcased in this year's exhibition Not So Virtual have all taken traditional and highly important stories and themes, presenting them in a fashion that helps the viewer bridge the gap. This show centres around Emily Kame Kngwarreye, by now easily the most internationally recognised Australian Artist. Her works where among the first to pave the road between anthropological and artistic treatment of work by Australian Indigenous artists. Her paintings are collected and housed by the finest institutions and galleries worldwide. Most recently, Gagosian Gallery presented a dedicated a solo exhibition. Jorna Newberry’s simple-toned, minutely detailed Wind Dreaming paintings shimmer with knowledge and connection to country. Kitty Napanangka Simon, who has been represented by Cooee Art in conjunction with Warnayaka Art Centre in Lajamanu, offer a bold gestural perspective on the highly important Mina Mina Dreaming. Arnhem Land artist Yimula Munungurr’s works on bark and Lorrkons (burial poles) vibrate with detailed clan designs in fine crosshatched fields of colour, presented in conjunction with Buku Larrngay Arts in Yirrkala. Utopia artist Josie Petrick Kemarre, from the same country as Emily Kame Kngwarreye, creates flowing instinctual fields of colour by using meticulously placed and flawlessly executed dots. Rammey Ramsey’s textured compositions remind us of earlier Kimberly artists such as Rover Thomas or Queenie Mckenzie, while using bright and powerful (sometimes even fluorescent or neon) colours.

NAIDOC WEEK AT WORK INC Work Inc. | North Sydney 30 June to 14 July 2023 NAIDOC WEEK AT WORK INC 30 June to 14 July 2023 NAIDOC WEEK AT WORK INC 30 June to 14 July 2023 Work Inc. | North Sydney RITA BEASLEY - WUTUNUGURRA LANDSCAPE price AU$1,990.00 WALTER JANGALA BROWN - TINGARI CYCLE Sold AU$840.00 ATHENA NANGALA GRANITES - YANJIRLPIRRI | NAPALJARRI-WARNU JUKURRPA Sold AU$0.00 RITA BEASLEY - WATER AROUND EPENARRA Sold AU$0.00 MARISSA NAPANANGKA ANDERSON - NGAPA JUKURRPA (WATER DREAMING) - PUYURRU Sold AU$0.00 CECILY NAPANANGKA MARSHALL - JANGANPA JUKURRA (BRUSH-TAIL POSSUM DREAMING)- ... price AU$1,260.00 MARGARET NANGALA GALLAGHER - YANKIRRI JUKURRPA (EMU DREAMING) price AU$460.00 JULIE NANGALA ROBERTSON - NGAPA JUKURRPA (WATER DREAMING) - PIRLINYARNU Sold AU$0.00 LORNA CORBETT - DRY GRASSES - LORNA CORBETT Sold AU$0.00 JULIE NANGALA ROBERTSON - NGAPA JUKURRPA (WATER DREAMING) - PIRLINYARNU price AU$850.00 ADA PULA BEASLEY - MY COUNTRY Sold AU$0.00 JESSIE BEASLEY - BUSH FLOWERS Sold AU$0.00 MARY PETERSON - BUSH FLOWER Sold AU$0.00 EX NAIDOC

NumbulmooreCharl Charlie Numbulmoore Charlie Numbulmoore 1907 - 1971 Charlie Numbulmoore lived for many years on Gibb River Station in the Central Kimberley where anthropologist Ian Crawford first recorded him repainting Wandjina figures in a Mamadai cave in the 1960’s. The few biographical details of Numbulmoore’s life that exist are traced solely through his encounters with those anthropologists who collected his work. Following Crawford’s initial encounter, Helen Groger collected the artist’s work on behalf of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in 1970, the same year that collector and grazier Tom McCourt purchased a number of paintings on bark, plywood, and cardboard. In his journal McCourt recollected Numbulmoore as 'the last of the old people here… who has that certain something that impresses you… when I was in Charlies camp, I bought several paintings he had in his hut from him… although his work is childlike, it has the primitive look of paintings seen under the rock hangings out in the bush' (cited in Sotheby’s 2003: 10). The Wandjina, exclusive to areas of the Kimberley, are said to have lain down in a cave and turned into a painting after their time on the earth. The Worrorra, Ngarinyin, and Woonambal clans of the Kimberley are responsible for maintaining the remnants of these spirit ancestors. Numbulmoore’s paintings show a unique conception of the Wandjina, characterised by large round black eyes fringed with short delicate lashes. The centre of the chest features a solid black, or occasionally red, oval said to depict the sternum, or heart, or a pearl shell pendant representing its spiritual essence. The almost circular head is surrounded by a very regular, tripartite halo or headdress representing hair, clouds, and lightning. Unusual in these works is the inclusion of a mouth and a long narrow parallel-sided nose, flared at the very tip with nostrils. After retouching a Wandjina near Mamadai Charlie stated 'I made you very good now…you must be very glad because I made yours eyes like new. That eye you know, like this my eye… I made them new for you people. My eye has life and your eye has life too, because I made it new … don’t try bringing rain, my wife might drown with the rain' (cited in Ryan 1993). The reference to the Wandjina’s power over the rains is particularly pertinent for Numbulmoore. The inclusion of a mouth is distinctive of his work as this is rare in Wandjna depictions. That he does so illustrates how individual interpretations of Wandjina are unique to each clan. Their more common absence is most often attributed to a belief that painting a mouth on the Wandjina’s face would bring perpetual rain. It has been suggested that Wandjina paintings on bark were first produced for trade and exchange with missionaries travelling by lugger along the coastline prior to mid 1970's. The Worrorra, Ngarinyin, and Woonambal artists did not possess the technical know how commonly found in Arnhem Land. For this reason their own barks were 'usually poorly prepared, the often knotty surfaces left irregular, and the pigments, applied without fixatives' (Ryan 1993: 15). Few of these pre 1970's examples survive. However, Charlie Numbulmoore’s paintings are a rare exception to this, as along with bark, he employed unusual, but more durable surfaces, such as slate, hard wood coolamons, or even cardboard. Notably images of the Wandjina created on bark, canvas or slate were viewed by artists like Numbulmoore as purely reproductions of the ‘real’ Wandjina’s adorning the cave walls at their most important Dreaming sites. Their primary artistic inspiration and purpose lay in their responsibility to maintain the ancestral beings, by repainting them and ‘keeping them strong’. The great strength of Charlie Numbulmoore’s artistic legacy is that he was able to convey the aesthetic and spiritual power of the Wandjina undiminished through a range of portable media that survive to this day. Charlie Numbulmoore’s works are rare and have a primitive numinous appeal. His paintings have appeared at auction only 35 times and, in what is extremely rare in Aboriginal art sales, only six have been passed in with all but two of his ten highest results exceeding their high estimates. Amongst those works offered more than once, was a 62 x 38.5 cm bark, which just exceeded its top estimate of $30,000 at Sotheby’s in 2000 and four years later sold for $49,850 showing an increase of $14,200. Two Spotted Wandjina c.1965 has appeared three times. This 78 x 60 cm work executed in earth pigments on cardboard achieved a price of $23,500 against a presale estimate of $18,000-25,000 when it first appeared for sale in Deutscher~Menzies in May 2000 (Lot 30). Three years later it reappeared at Lawson Menzies October 2003 sale with a slightly higher estimate of $25,000-35,000 and reached $35,250 (Lot 33). In a result that reflects Sotheby’s preference for ethnographic works, this painting sold for $72,000 when re-offered in July 2007 against a presale estimate of $40,000-50,000 (Lot 30). Only a work on slate, sold by Sotheby's in 2002 for $22,800 cost its owner when resold in 2012 through Bonham's for $18,300. Still, the pleasure derived from living with it should have more than compensated. In 2018 a bark that originally failed to sell through Leonard Joel in September 2015 when estimated at $12,000 - $18,000, was pushed by Sotheby's in London at GBP25,000 - 35,000 and failed once more. His highest price is $228,000, paid for an unusually large work measuring 161 x 80 cm at Sotheby’s in July 2007 (Lot 28). During 2006-07 no less than four works exceeded his previous record of $71,000 paid for a painted coolamon in Sotheby’s July 2005 auction. Since 2000 Numbulmorre has fetched high sums, often outstripping the estimates set by auction houses by up to three times. Moreover, there is a high degree of acceptance of the eclectic array of surface on which his images are painted with works on cardboard, slate, plywood, bark, and painted coollamons all fetching high prices. These staggering prices paid for works that only recently would have been considered artefacts or ethnographic curiosities attest to a fascination engendered by the Wandjina image itself. In Numbulmoore’s case, the use of his image on the cover of Images of Power, Aboriginal Art from The Kimberley, published by the National Gallery of Victoria, has only added to his status as one of the most important exponents of this art. Though Charlie Numbulmoore’s barks predate Alec Mingelmanganu’s canvases by up to a decade, Numbulmoore’s results rank just behind Mingelmanganu on the secondary market before the low numbers offered are taken in to account. Works by both of these artists are now firmly established as blue-chip investments and will become increasingly difficult to obtain. The $228,000 record price paid for Numbulmoore’s Wandjina image in Sotheby’s 2007 sale just eclipsed his record of the previous year. These results were more than three times his record set only a year earlier, and just barely below the record sale of a Wandjina bark, by Alec Mingelmanganu at Sotheby’s in June 2002. That only four have failed at auction is testament to both the scarcity and desirability of Numbulmoore’s work. Such a result at auction is practically unheard of and all the more unusual because of the high value of his lowest sales record at $15,600. It is indicative that in 2015 only one work appeared for sale. It was offered in Sotheby's sale of the Thomas Vroom collection in London. The bark was far from his best and badly damaged, yet it achieved one of Numbulmoore's highest results, selling for GBP equivalent of $AUD34,920. With works of such uniformly superb quality there is little risk of depreciation. Numbulmoore’s works are rare, with only ten being offered for sale since 2007; they will always be strongly contested when they appear at sale. While they may seem rich pickings, I believe that his paintings are still undervalued and collectors should expect to see them continue to surge in value. 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

MarikaMatha Mathaman Marika Mathaman Marika 1915 - 1970 Mataman, Madaman, Matha'man, Matarman Mathaman Marika lived the traditional bush life of the Yulgnu people of North East Arnhem Land until his first contact with ‘balanda’ white people when still a young man. He was in his early twenties when the Methodist missionary Rev. W.S. Chaseling collected the first bark paintings at Yirrkala and Caledon Bay between 1936 and 1939. Few Europeans were aware of Arnhem Land or its inhabitants at the time however Mathaman, his brother Mawalan I, could see the enormous changes taking place that were to alter the Yunlgu culture and lifestyle forever. After a series of violent conflicts initiated by Mathaman and his countrymen over their mistreatment made world headlines, ongoing police searches created so much trouble for their people that they gave themselves up. Reflecting on his time in jail, Mathaman said, ‘for two years I dream about my country: Then I come back and I paint about my country' (Davidson, 1989:10). Over the following decade Mathaman painted important Rirratjingu creation stories that, read as an opus, forms one of the most sophisticated land rights statements produced by an Aboriginal Australian. While the production of bark paintings prior to the 1950’s was not great, from the mid 1950’s the demand from dealers for art began to grow rapidly. In Yirrkala, Douglas Tuffin, a lay missionary, devised the split stick framing still used by artists from this region, introduced tools for the fine incising later adopted for the decoration of carved figures and totemic animals, and produced the first authenticity labels on the back of paintings. And while mission authorities paid artists in tobacco and other trade goods on behalf of anthropologists, collectors, museums and marketing outlets down south, Arnhem Land bark paintings were being sold in art shops in the United States of America and London for the first time. At the beginning of the 1960’s when Mathaman began painting, good bark paintings could be purchased in almost every Australian state as well as overseas, and the demand appeared to far outweigh supply. At that time Tony Tuckson, Dep. Director of the AGNSW, Dr. Stuart Scougall, and Dorothy Bennett commissioned some of the first huge barks from Yirrkala and Karel Kupka, Ed Ruhe and Louis Allan developed important overseas collections. Eager dealers sought paintings by a number of the great painters and religious leaders, foremost amongst whom were North East Arnhem land painters Mathaman and Mawalan Marika. Mathaman was brother to Mawalan 1, leader of the Rirratjingu clan of the Dhuwa moiety, and upon his brother’s death took on his leadership responsibilities. Dhuwa clans share ownership of the Djangkawu, Wagilag and Wuyal myth cycles and in the paintings which followed his brother’s death Mathaman illuminated the presence of these great ancestor spirits through depictions of the creatures, places and totems they created on their travels. His paintings emit a sense of ‘radiance’ through delicate striations of cross-hatching that evokes a feeling of ‘spiritual presence’. The elaborately worked surfaces of his barks are characteristically divided into inter-related sections that contain both figurative and geometric components. A unifying network of straight and diagonal, parallel lines underlie his compositions. This patterning indicates clan affiliations and specific landmarks or locations. Human and animal figures are often depicted without embellishment, in blank silhouette, upon this rich symbolic ground. His beautifully executed complex paintings depicted the Djangkawu sisters who gave birth to the Rirratjingu clan and instituted their sacred laws; the Morning Star, held by women on a long string which they let out, finally pulling it back and imprisoning it in a cave until the next morning; the exploits of the Wagilag Sisters; and The Wuyal Honey Man and his sister. The travels, journeys and exploits of these great ancestor beings form the basis of Rirratjingu society and constitute the Dreaming tracks that interconnect the clans of North East Arnhem Land and unite all of their homelands. Mathaman was the first bark painter in the region to consistently mix pigments, softening the customary contrasts of light and dark colours. He chose sepia, veering away from strong black by mixing it with yellow to make a dull olive green. His use of orchid bulb juice to bind the earth pigments resulted in a matt finish that suited his muted tones and was markedly different to the shiny clarity of pigments mixed with European-style wood glue. Mathaman was a master of juxtaposition, building a fluent rhythm of cross-hatching in order to maximize the magical sense of light that infused his complex designs. His spidery delicacy of line allowed for completeness in each detail, reflecting the purposeful concentration with which he always worked. His meticulous designs were painted from memory, often pulled to the surface with the help of the traditional chants that accompanied the unfolding artwork. Towards the end of his life, Mathaman and his people saw their lands set upon by the bulldozers of the Nabalco mining company. Protest corroborees were organized and the outside world began to intrude in some helpful but more often ruinous ways. Mathaman called the young men to him to give them instruction as he felt his time approach. He died at peace with the Dreaming, returning to the spiritual source that he had felt so strongly throughout his life. It was the wellspring of his creativity, conveyed to future generations within his work. Mathaman Marika’s finest works belong to major national and international collections. Only 26 of his bark paintings have reached the secondary market and quite a few of these were not illustrated in the auction catalogues. A number were minor works and several exhibited a degree of white ochre loss and were in poor condition. Of the 13 that have failed to sell two were poor examples and one of these, The Djankawu People c.1957 was a small work, which sold for $900 in Lawson-Menzies November 2004 auction (Lot 336) after having failed to sell at Sotheby’s in 2001 with an estimate of just $800-1,200 (Lot 351). In 2009 Bonhams offered two Sacred Djungowa (Sic) Story 1960 barks, which despite modest estimates of $4,000-6,000 failed to find buyers. Again testament to the vast difference in interest between grand narrative masterpieces and those which depict simpler details from such stories. More than any other factor this accounts for the vast discrepancy amongst Mathaman’s sales. Of the 26 offered only six have been prime examples of his work, which demonstrated his supreme artistic ability. His record price stands at the $31,050 was paid for Bremer Island Battle c.1961, a large bark measuring 144.5 x 73 cm, which sold in Sotheby’s June 2002 auction (Lot 53). This exceeded his record that had stood since 1999, when Fish Trap at Gangan c.1960 measuring 115 x 52.5 cm sold at Sotheby’s (Lot 20). This work featured equally magnificent complex imagery with fine ‘rarrk’ detail and sold for what is now his second highest price of $25,300. Another Untitled Narrative c.1959, similar in size and artistic merit to the second best, but marred by the white ochre in poor repair, sold within its estimate for $6,000 in Sotheby’s November 2005 auction (Lot 91). This placed it as the fourth best bark at auction at the time and the fifth today. The third best price of $12,650 went to a 1950’s bark that was a mere 17.2 x 42 cm but in excellent condition. It was lot 26 in Sotheby’s June 1996 auction. Including two sales above $20,000 all up only six barks have sold for more than $5,000 while seven have sold for less. The results for this artist overall belie the fact that he was such an important figure during the period when barks were in their heyday, long before the emergence of desert painting. It just goes to prove that secondary market results are not everything when assessing the importance of an artist. This one produced masterpieces. On those rare occasions when his finest works appear at auction expect fireworks. 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