Artist Profile for Borbobani < Back Borbobani Borbobani ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE Borbobani 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 Dorothy Robinson Napangardi Also know as: Robertson < Back Dorothy Robinson Napangardi Also know as: Robertson Dorothy Robinson Napangardi 1956 - 2013 Also know as: Robertson ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS Dorothy Napangardi spent her early childhood living a nomadic life at Mina Mina near Lake Mackay in the Tanami Desert during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She recalled camping at claypans and soakages with her mother, Jeanie Lewis Napururrla, learning to collect the plentiful bush tucker and grinding seeds for damper cooked on hot ashes. READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU SOLD AU$25,000.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA SOLD AU$5,000.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU JUKURRPA 1 (WOMEN'S DREAMING 1) SOLD AU$3,500.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA SOLD AU$3,000.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA SOLD AU$1,650.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MEMORIES OF COUNTRY - MINA MINA SOLD AU$550.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU JUKURRPA SOLD AU$480.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU JUKURRPA 2003 Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SANDHILLS OF MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA DREAMING Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA JUKURRPA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SANDHILLS Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - BEYOND MINA MINA (BILBY DREAMING) Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SANDHILLS SOLD AU$5,500.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU JUKURRPA (WOMEN'S DREAMING) Sold AU$4,000.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU SOLD AU$3,300.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$2,800.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU JUKURRPA SOLD AU$1,200.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT SOLD AU$520.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA SALT LAKES Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SANDHILLS OF MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SANDHILLS Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU JUKURRPA 2003 Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU TJUKURRPA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SANDHILLS Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - BEYOND MINA MINA (BILBY DREAMING) Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SANDHILLS Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SANDHILLS Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Dorothy Robinson Napangardi 1956 - 2013 Dorothy Napangardi spent her early childhood living a nomadic life at Mina Mina near Lake Mackay in the Tanami Desert during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She recalled camping at claypans and soakages with her mother, Jeanie Lewis Napururrla, learning to collect the plentiful bush tucker and grinding seeds for damper cooked on hot ashes. This idyllic life came to a close when her family was forcibly relocated to the government settlement at Yuendumu. Dorothy’s father, Paddy Lewis Japanangka greatly regretted the move, particularly for its impact on the traditional education of his children. However, his attempt to return to country with his family failed and they remained in the government settlement until Dorothy married. She moved with her husband, an elderly man to whom she had been promised at a young age, to Alice Springs and bore him four daughters and later, after the marriage eventually broke down, gave birth to her youngest child, Annette, by another man. It was here, in Alice Springs in 1987, that she began painting. Dorothy’s early artistic endeavours were heavily influenced by memories of her childhood. Her subject matter was principally the Bush Plum and Bush Banana, wild fruits that grow in abundance near Mina Mina, changing in colour as they ripen, which she mirrored in her depictions. The paintings, at such an early stage in her career, clearly marked Dorothy as an artist of great talent. Her superb sense of composition created a rhythmic effect as semi-naturalistic depictions were entwined in an altogether geometric formation. In the late 1980s, the government marketing company Aboriginal Arts Australia closed its Alice Springs outlet and its manager Roslyn Premont opened her own, Gallery Gondwana. After meeting Roslyn in 1990, Dorothy began painting exclusively for her gallery and the close personal relationship that developed between the two women lasted up until her tragic death in 2013. The studio environment and financial security that Premont provided enabled Dorothy to experiment freely and develop her artistic repertoire rapidly. As it did, she created works that drew on her innate visual consciousness, developed during those early years spent in the vast unlimited expanses of the desert. From 1997 onward, Dorothy began producing works which traced the grid-like patterns of the salt encrustations on the Mina Mina clay pans marking a significant artistic shift in her work. Over three years, her paintings became less and less contrived and increasingly spare, all detail pared back to the barest essentials. These new works, in which Dorothy began to explore the Women’s Digging Sticks Dreaming and other stories related to the travels of the Karntakurlangu, compel the spectator's eye to dance across the painted surface, just as these ancestral women danced in the hundreds across the country during the region's creation. Dancing digging sticks magically emerged from the ground at Mina Mina, equipping the large band of women for their travels over a vast stretch of country. The tall desert oaks which are found there today symbolise the emergence of the digging sticks that rose up from beneath the ground itself. As these works developed, her extraordinary spatial ability enabled her to create mimetic grids of the salt encrustations across the claypans of Mina Mina. The lines of white dots trace the travels of her female ancestors as they danced their way, in joyous exultation, through the saltpans, spinifex and sandhills, clutching their digging sticks in their outstretched hands. Kathleen Petyarre has been quoted as saying 'Those Walpiri ladies, they’re mad about dancing, they go round and round and round dancing, they’re always dancing' (cited in Napangardi 2002: 22). Little wonder then, that the surfaces of Dorothy’s canvases become dense rhythms of grids, as she mapped the paths of these dancing women. In 2001 Dorothy Napangardi was the recipient of the 18th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and in the following year a solo exhibition of her work was curated for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Through her association with Roslyn Premont and her Gallery Gondwana, Dorothy’s paintings have enjoyed considerable commercial success. Yet despite this close and nurturing relationship, Dorothy continued to occasionally paint for others when moved to do so. These ‘outside‘ paintings are rarely as good as her Gallery Gondwana works. However, there have been exceptions and these have included a number of major canvases painted for Peter Van Groesen and sold through Kimberley Art Gallery in Melbourne. Creating these paintings has in no way undermined her personal integrity. While Dorothy Napangardi’s paintings may be seen as important commodities and major investments, her work can be so beautiful and ethereal, as to border on the sublime. ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Despite having produced paintings from the late 1980s, Dorothy Napangardi's popularity and the high prices achieved for her works are a relatively recent phenomenon and relate almost entirely to her post-1997 works. In fact, all of her ten highest sales have been for works produced after 2000. All are restricted to the limited pallet and grid-like patterns of vertical and horizontal dotted lines, which mimic the salt encrustations at Mina Mina. Despite the beauty of her highly accomplished and colourful Bush Plum and Bush Banana works, as demonstrated in the Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition and accompanying catalogue Dancing Up Country , the very best of these have never been offered at auction and minor works in this style have attracted very little interest when compared to the more abstracted paintings created after 1997. Before 2012, the highest results for these had been the meagre $3,055 each, realised when two small colourful floral works were offered for sale at Bonham Goodman in 2004 and Shapiro in 2002. Gaia Auction in Paris sold a colourful Bush Banana Dreaming canvas measuring a large 130 x 200 cm in 2011, for AUS$14,550. Though insufficient to indicate a clear market preference for her more muted style, it is notable nonetheless, and perhaps significant that it was sold overseas. Her solo exhibition held from December 2002 to March 2003 at the Museum of Contemporary Art threw those interested in Aboriginal art into a spin. In a controversial and extremely unusual move, Gallery Gondwana held a commercial exhibition of her work at the Danks Street Depot Gallery concurrent with the MCA show. Dorothy’s major large black canvases featuring tight grids of carefully dotted white lines sold for around $60,000-80,000 each, double the prices similar works had attracted just six months earlier in her Gallery Gondwana Alice Springs exhibition. Similarly, 120 x 120 cm paintings previously exhibited for $10,000-12,000 and 150 x 90 cm works at $8,000 had jumped in price to $25,000 and $18,000 respectively. Dorothy was definitely the artist of the moment, and the show was a sell-out. This intense primary market interest subsequently declined. By 2012 a 150 x 90 cm work of impeccable provenance had decreased in value to around $15,000. Still a healthy increase in value over its value pre-2002. In 2015, a very fine black and white gridwork measuring 122 x 198 cm and purchased by Dutch uber-collector Thomas Vroom in 2001 sold for just $24,400 at Bonham's, a far from desirable outcome regardless of the depth of Vroom's pocket. Dorothy's MCA show and the success that followed heralded a dearth of quality paintings in relation to the demand generated by serious collectors, setting the preconditions for a sudden rash of works on the secondary market from 2002 onward. While only one painting was offered for sale at auction in 2002, seven appeared in 2003, 27 in 2004 and 26 in 2005. 2015 was Dorothy's best year since 2009 when her sales total was $200,930. Dorothy Napangardi's most successful paintings at auction have featured a network of closely knit interconnected dotted squares built to form duotone patterned grids on dark, most often black, backgrounds. By randomly in-filling white dotted squares with yellow or deep red ochre dots, a mottled effect is produced as demonstrated in her top-selling lot, Karntakurlangu . When this work sold at Sotheby’s in July 2004 (Lot 113) it more than doubled its high estimate of $60,000 taking $129,750. In the same auction, a larger subtler piece failed to reach its low estimate of $50,000 and was passed in. The work was later sold at Lawson-Menzies in November 2006 sale for $55,200. Dorothy’s second-highest result at auction was for Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa 2003 a much larger 183 x 350 cm work on linen. Carrying a presale estimate of $80,000-100,000 it sold for $120,000 at Lawson~Menzies in November 2007 (Lot 62). Sales in 2008 were poor, in line with the market slump and the end of Lawson~Menzies specialist sales. This resulted in her career clearance rate dropping below her somewhat respectable 65%. 2009 brought a mixed bag of results, with 13 of the 32 works on offer selling, including a number of impressive sales upwards of $20,000 that sit just outside of the artist’s top ten records. Generally, the majority of the failures carried poor provenance or were smaller paintings. These results should not diminish the results for her finest pieces. Without these failures, her sale rate would have been closer to a spectacular 81%, despite the vast majority of these works having spent such a short time between their original purchase and subsequent appearance at auction. Dorothy Napangardi was an artist of top calibre and her highest auction results gave her one of the best records for any living artist at the time. Since 2009 she has constantly hovered between 20th and 25th on of the top 100 artists. However, this acclaim is unlikely to last indefinitely. She tragically died a relatively young woman. At just 50 years of age should have had many productive years ahead of her. The heat her career generated from the late 1990s to 2009 will be difficult to maintain now that her repertoire is finite. At the time of her death, her art practice was being severely compromised by the quantity of ‘copycat paintings’ that were being produced by members of her family and others that were sold under her name. The closure of Gallery Gondwana, her principal agent, did not help. Still, 2019 saw Napangardi included in a Sotheby's New York sale of important indigenous artists, where her two somewhat impressive works sold for AUD50,000 Buyers lucky enough to purchase works before her MCA show in 2002 will always be able to make a very good profit on their paintings at sale. However, those paying higher prices in her exhibitions during the following decade will need to rely on a buoyant market and excellent provenance if they are to reap financial rewards. 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 .

GUARDIANS FOR CHANGE Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Redfern, NSW 2016 2nd to 30th September 2023 Viewing Room GUARDIANS FOR CHANGE 2nd to 30th September 2023 Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Redfern, NSW 2016 Cooee Art was established in 1981. From 2023, Australia’s oldest exhibiting Indigenous-focused gallery is solely owned by Mirri Leven. In its new era, the gallery will be run as a space of collaboration, working directly with First Nations curators, art centres, and represented artists. “Guarding for Change - Looking to the past and seeing ahead .” A thematic extension of our 2023 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair Booth . Starting now, Leven will begin exhibiting non-Indigenous alongside our First Nations artists, exclusively through specially curated projects. These focus on technique and transparent dialogue, offering an opportunity beyond the ordinary commercial relationship between artist and gallery, fostering an environment of openness and direct exchanges between artists. KATHLEEN PETYARRE - MOUNTAIN DEVIL LIZARD - SANDHILL COUNTRY (AFTER HAILSTORM) price AU$22,000.00 CORY WAKARTU SURPRISE - PITILL JILA price AU$4,800.00 BIDDEE BAADJO - PIYURR Sold AU$0.00 YANNIMA TOMMY WATSON - IYARKA Sold AU$0.00 MIRDIDINGKINGATHI JUWARNDA GABORI SALLY - DIBIRDIBI COUNTRY Sold AU$0.00 BLAK DOUGLAS - AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE INDUSTRIES! Sold AU$0.00 MINNIE PWERLE - AWELYE AND BUSH MELON Sold AU$0.00 MINNIE PWERLE - UNTITLED Sold AU$9,000.00 NYANYUMA NAPANGARDI - TINGARI DREAMING CYCLE price AU$3,300.00 BIDDEE BAADJO - PIYURR Sold AU$0.00 MIRDIDINGKINGATHI JUWARNDA GABORI SALLY - DIBIRDIBI COUNTRY Sold AU$0.00 PATRICK OLODOODI TJUNGURRAYI - PURRITJUNU Sold AU$0.00 BLAK DOUGLAS - AND FROM THE EAST THEY CAME! Sold AU$0.00 BROOK ANDREW - FRONTIER LIGHTS price AU$8,000.00 MINNIE PWERLE - AWELYE AND BUSH MELON price AU$2,800.00 BIDDEE BAADJO - PIYURR Sold AU$0.00 MIRDIDINGKINGATHI JUWARNDA GABORI SALLY - MY COUNTRY Sold AU$0.00 BLAK DOUGLAS - PERPLEXING THE PALAWA! Sold AU$0.00 GLORIA PETYARRE - BUSH LEAVES Sold AU$0.00 EX-Guardians-Change-23

Artist Profile for Bernard Tjalkuri < Back Bernard Tjalkuri Bernard Tjalkuri ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE BERNARD TJALKURI - WATARRU SOLD AU$2,800.00 BERNARD TJALKURI - TJITJI TJUTA SOLD AU$380.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Bernard Tjalkuri 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 .

MungatopiDeaf Deaf Tommy Mungatopi Deaf Tommy Mungatopi 1923 - 1985 800 kilometres north of Darwin, the Tiwi Islands are home to a distinctive culture, isolated from the mainland by treacherous seas and in earlier times a determined resistance to outsiders. Plentiful food and freshwater, abundant forest and varied shorelines produced a rich island culture of ceremony and art making for which some families became particularly renowned. The Mungatopis were one such family and Deaf Tommy Mungatopi was their revered leader during some of the crucial years of the emergence of today’s contemporary Tiwi art form. Alongside his five brothers who also were bark painters and carvers, he built upon the foundations of traditional ceremonial life in a process of both artistic continuity and creative innovation. Deaf Tommy was a sought after maker of Pukumani or funeral poles which, besides being commissioned for important funerals in his community, have become emblematic of Tiwi culture, displayed in and around state galleries nationwide. Deaf Tommy was rendered deaf by an exploding bomb when, as a young man, he worked as a coast watcher on Melville Island during World War II. During these years of European socialisation and religious conversion, artistic and ceremonial pursuits were strongly discouraged. Steady interest by early anthropologists and collectors, however, broadened during the 1970s when the Tiwi gained more control of their own affairs. Appreciation of Aboriginal Art and the deep traditions that lay behind it began increasing. Tiwi Art picked up a contemporary momentum and this in turn helped reaffirm Tiwi culture and identity. Deaf Tommy lived at Milikapiti (originally meaning milk and cup of tea) and worked at the Jilamara Art Centre, which is known for its high esteem of Tiwi history. In the museum attached to the art centre his works (and war medals) are now displayed alongside other famous figures (including the Baldwin, Spencer and Mountford archival photographs) that still inform the modern tradition. Today’s best known painters and carvers on Melville and Bathurst islands still seek guidance and inspiration there. The two seasonally distinct ceremonies that mark the Tiwi calendar are the rituals of increase and the rituals of mourning. In the Pulinari (creation times) death was unknown to the Tiwi until Tapara, the moon man, seduced Bima, the wife of his brother Purukapali. This caused the neglect and death of her baby son, Jinani. Purukapali found his dead son and created the first Pukumani ceremony. Then, weeping and wailing, he walked into the sea, holding the body in his upstretched arms. It is this final stance that is said to be the origin of the tall, elaborately painted Pukumani poles or Tutini. They are brightly and exquisitely painted in ochre bands of geometric design that may also include figurative elements. Over time they gradually weather away until only black stumps remain, standing amid the stringy bark trees. The Tiwi do not overly intellectualise their art. They watch, listen, dance and sing and their knowledge arises in a more sensate way, seen in the fierce beauty of their dances, body decoration and painting design. Deaf Tommy had a distinctive painting style that incorporates alternating bands of dotting applied by his wooden comb, the pwoja, and sequences of dashes or linked diamonds. Particularly in his bark painting he could evoke the physical atmosphere of a landscape or place through the juxtaposition of sequential repetition and variation. He captured the shimmering effect of sun or moonlight playing across the surface of the water, skilfully evoking the sense of ancestral presence. It is a visual language of pattern and rhythm that constantly evolves and re-invents itself, as it has done for generations. Deaf Tommy was a master of mid-century painting, one of the leading artists of his generation and is represented in most major collections of Tiwi art, including five Tutini poles that are part of a group installed in the sculpture garden at the National Gallery of Australia. Profile author: Sophie Baka Collections: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Australian Museum, Sydney. Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. National Museum of Australia, Canberra. Group Exhibitions: 1993/4 - ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark.1991 - Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra. Bibliography: Caruana, W., 1987, Australian Aboriginal Art, a Souvenir Book of Aboriginal Art in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory. Caruana, W., Aboriginal Art, World of Art Series, Thames and Hudson, London, 2003 Crumlin, R., (ed.), 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Collins Dove, North Blackburn, Victoria. (C). Isaacs, J., 1984, Australia's Living Heritage, Arts of the Dreaming, Lansdowne Press, Sydney. (C).1993, Aratjara, Art of the First Australians: Traditional and Contemporary Works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists, exhib. cat. (conceived and designed by Bernard Luthi in collaboration with Gary Lee), Dumont, Buchverlag, Koln. (C). Le Brun Holmes, Sandra, 1995, The Goddess and the Moon Man: the Sacred Art of the Aborigines,Craftsman House Sydney. Norton, F., 1975, Aboriginal Art, Western Australian Art Gallery Board with the assistance of the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council. Deaf Tommy Mungatopi was one of five brothers from Milikapiti who interacted with Charles Mountford during his visits to Melville Island in the 1940s. All were singers and dancers and their performances were photographed and described in detail by a number of subsequent visitors, anthropologists and collectors. Other brothers included Ali Miller Mungatopi, Laurie One Eye Nelson Mungatopi and Lame Toby Mungatopi. Paintings and carvings by all of these artists have entered major institutional collections over the years. Nevertheless, works by Deaf Tommy have rarely been offered at public auction and a number of these offers have been resales. Works by the other brothers are even rarer. In 2012 an imposing, through relatively small, bark painting, Coral c.1967, sold at Bonhams for $60,000. The painting was being deaccessioned by the William Nutall Superannuation Fund after changes to the Federal Superannuation laws made holding art and collectables in self-managed funds unpalatable. Nutall, a prominent Melbourne dealer, had originally purchased the work from Sotheby's for $96,000, at the peak of the market in 2007. At the time, this set the artists highest record price at auction. The same work appeared once more in Sotheby's March 2018 London sale and carrying an estimate of GBP35,000-50,000 ot sold for GBP42.500 ($AUD75,323). So rare are his paintings that only 8 have ever appeared for sale though the majority have been offered on several occasions. For instance this single distinctive work holds the artist's 1st, 2nd and 4th highest records. Another work, Coral Phases of the Moon had to be offered three times before finally finding a new home. When first put to sale in July 2006 at Sotheby's (Lot 39) it carried a presale estimate of $50,000-70,000 but failed to attract interest. Sotheby's tried once more in November 2007 with a slightly lower estimate of $40,000-60,000 but failed once more. Finally it did sell, for $24,000, after the owner lowered his expectations to $20,000-30,000 in Sotheby's July 2009 sale (Lot 40). The same this happerned with Coral 1977. It was first offered through Bonhams in 2016 with a presale estimate of $35,000 - 45,000, failing to attract interest. In 2017 the work was offered through Bonhams again, with an estimate of $15,000 - 25,000, but only found a buyer later that year when it was offered once more through Leonard Joel with an even lower estimate of $10,000 - 15,000, when it was sold for $10,964. Deaf Tommy's low sales numbers have depressed his AIAM ranking, however this should rise over time. The publication of Jennifer Isaacs book Tiwi: Art History Culture, firmly posits him as a very important early influence on the contemporary art of the Tiwi people. Deaf Tommy's works are powerful representations of ceremonial significance, and it will only be the luckiest of private collectors that will ever actually own one. 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 Inyuwa Nampitjinpa < Back Inyuwa Nampitjinpa Inyuwa Nampitjinpa ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE Inyuwa Nampitjinpa 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 Lofty Nabardayal Nadjamerrek Also know as: Nabageyo, Nabarrayal, Nabadayal < Back Lofty Nabardayal Nadjamerrek Also know as: Nabageyo, Nabarrayal, Nabadayal Lofty Nabardayal Nadjamerrek 1926 - 2009 Also know as: Nabageyo, Nabarrayal, Nabadayal ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE LOFTY NABARDAYAI NADJAMERREK - NAMARKON SOLD AU$460.00 LOFTY NABARDAYAI NADJAMERREK - SUGARBAG SPIRITS Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Lofty Nabardayal Nadjamerrek 1926 - 2009 Lofty Nadjamerrek was born and spent his youth at Kukkurlumurl and his clan lands in the Mann River region of Western Arnhem Land. It was amongst these rocky outcrops and caves, where they camped during the wet season, that Nabardayal's father, Yanjorluk, taught him the art of rock painting. Indeed a number of Yanjorluk and Nabardayal’s earliest cave paintings survive to this day, in the Kodwalehwaleh region of the Djordi clan estate. Nabardayal left Arnhem Land as a teenager, migrating to the tin mining region of Maranboy, a two hundred kilometer walk to the south. He worked at the mine, where his European boss dubbed him Lofty, a reference to his tall stature, until the mine’s collapse in the face of the Federal Government’s equal pay legislation. Prior to this time, Indigenous workers were paid in rations and tobacco. Bardayal then took up stock work on various cattle stations until the onset of WWII. He left for the bush at one point, but was promptly brought back and forcibly made to work at the Army’s Stirling Mill near Mataranka. ‘We had to work, we were all frightened, there was nothing we could do and all that working has given me grey hair‘ (cited in West 1995: 8). With the end of the war Lofty returned to his clan lands and then into Oenpelli (Gunbalanya), where he worked as a buffalo-shooter. He married Mary Kalkiwarra, who gave birth to three of their eight children there. Though a number of anthropologists had visited Oenpelli and collected paintings on bark, beginning with Sir Baldwin Spencer in 1912, it was not until Peter Carrol had arrived that bark paintings were created ‘commercially’. Encouraged by Carol’s energy and enthusiasm, his linguistic interest in the culture, and a policy of paying 60% ‘up-front’ for bark paintings, Bardayal began to paint in earnest from 1969 onward. Even though there was a significant international demand for bark paintings at this time, no ‘official’ art centre existed in Oenpelli until 1989. Between 1970 and 1987 the Aboriginal Development Commission’s Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, later renamed Aboriginal Arts Australia, exhibited bark paintings in its galleries located in each of the capital cities. Lofty’s bark paintings were a familiar mainstay and ‘field operatives’ including Dorothy Bennett aided in their collection and documentation, with additional works being sent to dealers such as Jim Davidson in Melbourne and emerging privately owned outlets such as Sydney’s Coo-ee and Hogarth Galleries. During this period, Lofty’s career continued to blossom and receive recognition in group shows that focused on the art of the ‘Stone Country’ and the Oenpelli region in particular. By this time, with the encouragement toward self-determination initiated by the Whitlam government, Bardayal had moved from Oenpelli and lived at a number of outstations, before establishing his own at Malkawo in 1980. Tragically, in 1988 the family Lofty had been living with was shot, and this preempted his move to Kamarrkawarn, in his mother’s country on the Mann River, where he and his family resided until his death in October 2009. The establishment of Injalak Arts at Gubalanya in 1989 finally brought about the recognition that Lofty deserved, as one of the community's most significant artists. His subjects range across a wide array of secular and spiritual themes. Bardayal’s style is firmly seated within Western Arnhem Land conventions, with figurative elements contained within an unadorned red, brown or black ochre background. His predominantly white figures are in-filled with a combination of X-ray details of their internal organs and his own uniquely identifiable cross-hatched (rarrk) patterns. The design elements in his work differ from other Western Arnhem Land painters of his generation, such as Mick Kubarkku, with whom he is strongly associated since the important 1995 landmark exhibition Rainbow, Sugarbag and Moon - The Art of Mick Kubarkku and Bardayal Nadjamerrek . The exhibition was mounted by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. While both of these artists' styles are related to the rock art tradition, Bardayal confines his in-fill patterns to red parallel lines, that are more closely associated with these conventions than the geometric body paint designs from which Kubarkku derives his own unique cross-hatching. Judith Ryan, Senior Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, praised him for his ‘sure draughtsmanship and sense of proportion, the mark of a great artist‘ and concludes, that his ‘ power of outline, not the patterning within each figure, is what transmits life to the compositions‘ (1990: 80). During the later part of his life, Lofty continued to paint, most notably on Arches paper due no doubt to the difficulty of collecting suitable bark. Despite a long and enduring career, it is only since 2005 that solo exhibitions of his work were organized by Mossenson Galleries in Melbourne and Annandale Galleries in Sydney. However the group shows that he participated in were many and various since his first exhibition in 1975 at the Meadow Brook Art Gallery in Rochester, Michigan. In 1982 one of his paintings was used on the Australian 40c stamp, and in 1999 he won the Telstra Work on Paper Art Award at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, having been an entrant many times since the first Award was given in 1984. Furthermore, after a lifelong legacy of creativity, in 2004 he was a richly deserving recipient of the Order of Australia for his lasting contribution to Australian culture. ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Considering the serious push behind his work by a number of important galleries including Sydney’s Annandale Galleries, and the records set for works by John Mawandjurl and several North East Arnhem Land painters in recent years, Lofty’s best works are seriously undervalued in the secondary market. His works did not finally rise above $10,000 on the secondary market until 2008, despite the variety of their subject matter and the four-decade period over which they were painted. While Lofty had been a most important Arnhem Land artist, his lack of stellar sales was due principally, in my opinion, to the under appreciation of barks paintings in general, and the fact that few of his finest works had been offered for sale at auction. In 2008 and 2009, three works transcended his record price that had stood since 2000, when $8,625 was paid against an estimate of $5,000-8,000 at Sotheby's in June for Namarrkon - The Lightning Man , an image composed of a highly potent bold singular figure against a red ochre background (Lot 98). It is surprising to look at the image, which is a very long way from his best work, and imagine that this could possibly have held his record price during an eight year boom for Aboriginal art, especially in light of prices charged for his paintings on the primary market. However, in 2008 no less than four works entered his top ten results, making this his most successful year historically to that time and lifting his career average price by close to $500 and his AAMI by 14%. Despite the success of Nawaram - Rock Python Eating Dreamtime Woman –Ngalyangdon and Male and Female Mimihs , which became the artists two highest records at $14,400 and $11,400 when sold at Sotheby’s in October 2008 (Lots 70 and 71) both were relatively static compositions created in the early to mid 1970s. They both lacked particular distinction other than their provenance, having once been part of the Jerome Gould collection in Los Angeles. By far the finest work that had been offered at auction to that time was Creatures of the Sacred Maraian Ceremony 1991 , which sold at Sotheby’s in July 2004. In what is a complex compositional arrangement, an array of animal and plant imagery central to the Sacred Maraian Ceremony were depicted with stunning execution on a full sheet of Arches paper. One can only envy the purchaser of this beautiful 100 x 153 cm piece, which was estimated at just $7,000-10,000 and sold for a mere $8,100. In 2013, however, Bonham's held a sale of the Clive Evatt Jnr.'s collection of Arnhem Land barks and scultpure. The lively octogenarian was renowned for taking a punt. He had famously bought a major painting from Brett Whiteley with a boot full of cash after a massive win at the races. He reputedly won the building where he established the Hogarth Galleries, which became Sydney’s first privately owned commercial gallery of Aboriginal fine art in Australia during the mid 1970s. Its founding director, Kerry Steinberg (better known by her maiden name, Williams) built the Arnhem Land collection and for a period of eight years, at least a decade before institutions began purchasing in any quantity directly from the communities, a significant proportion of the Australian National Gallery’s collection was purchased through the Hogarth. The sale of Evatt's bark paintings and sculptures was held on 24 November 2013, and it was touted in the media that he had left his most treasured barks till last. Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek and Munggurrawuy Yunupingu were the undisputed stars of the sale. No less than four works by Lofty smashed his previous record. Lighning Spirit (Namarrkon) sold for $47,580, Mimi Spirits Dancing achieved $36,600, and images of Ngalyod (The Rainbow Serpent) and Kolobarr (The Plains Kangaroo) both sold for $28,060. On the strength of this sale, Lofty was recorded as the 6th most successful artist in 2013 after no less than 6 individual paintings entered his top ten result. In fact, 4 of these works broke his previous highest record at auction and these propelled him from 102nd to 72nd on the list of Aboriginal art’s most successful artists. The 92% success rate in this one sale lifted his career success rate at auction from 68% to 72% and his average price at sale to $6,596. Lofty has created a great many works on paper and, in general, these have not been popular on the secondary market indicating collectors’ ethnographic preference. In fact, the majority of his works that have failed to meet their reserves are works that were created on paper. This is to be expected, since his early works in good condition are favoured over his later ones, and it was not until the early 1990s that paper was available to Arnhem Land artists. However, if it is a particularly good image with his wonderful rarrk-work, neither the date of execution nor the medium seems to affect the sale price, as witnessed by his sixth highest price at auction to date. During the last decade of his productive life, Lofty’s works lost much of their precision and commonly appeared messy due to his infirmity. Nevertheless, galleries preferred to sell them without having any blemishes ‘touched up’. Although he had all but ended his artistic career, he continued to paint the odd work for the Injaluk Art centre while providing paintings to outlets in Jabiru and Darwin, including Phil Hall's Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery and Marrawuddi arts. Lofty painted for almost 40 years and fine works are likely to come up for auction on a regular basis. Prior to 2013, I had consisently advised collectors to buy his works while they could be obtained for no more than $10,000. The effect of his passing in late 2009 had yet to be seen on the market, and like the passing of fellow Arnhem Land artist Mick Kubarkku the previous year, a spike in both works on offer and sales results was always on the cards. Indeed, the time for purchasing his works at reasonable prices may well already be over. His retrospective at the Sydney MCA at the start of 2011 saw his artistic contribution finally recognised and the secondary market was always going to follow suit. Given the invaluable legacy of a 40 year long artistic career and the high regard in which his art is held, it was surprising that Lofty Nadjamerrek’s most prized works did not fetch infinitely higher prices until fairly recently. It seems to have been forgotten that there was a time in the late 1960s, prior to the genesis of the Western Desert art movement, when the international demand for bark paintings was so great that it far exceeded supply. After Baldwin Spencer initiated the first major commission of bark paintings from Oenpelli artists in 1912, a string of visiting anthropologists followed, culminating in Roland and Catherine Berndt’s visit in the 1940s. This marked a pivotal moment in the growth of public awareness about Indigenous Australia’s rich cultural heritage. At that time Western Arnhem Land X-ray and Mimi paintings had become firmly established in the Australian psyche as the ‘epitome of Indigenous art' (West 1995: 5). Seen in this light, it seems bewildering that, apart from a small number of Wandjina barks of the Kimberley, few Western Arnhem Land artists have attracted sales that come even close to those paid for top works on canvas, with the very rare exception of major works by historic figures such as Yirawala that have sold for more than $20,000. Outside this limited, and very specific category of early bark paintings, historically important figures like Lofty Nabardayal Nadjamerrek, who have painted well into the boom period of the Aboriginal art market, continue to sell for far less. 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 Lucy Napanangka Yukenbarri < Back Lucy Napanangka Yukenbarri Lucy Napanangka Yukenbarri ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE LUCY YUKENBARRI NAPANANGKA - UNTITLED Sold AU$20,000.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Lucy Napanangka Yukenbarri 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 .

JuliMabel Mabel Juli Mabel Juli 1933 Mabel was born c. 1933 at Five Mile, via Moola Bulla Station, East Kimberley Western Australia. She was raised in her mother’s country, Springvale Station. The family then relocated to Bow River Station where Mabel worked as a young woman. Mabel is a highly respected Traditional Kitja Elder and acknowledged as one of the great First Generation Ochre artists. She began painting in the mid 1980′s along with the late Queenie McKenzie and Madigan Thomas. Rover Thomas and Jack Britten (both deceased) were already attracting attention with their depictions of the country in ochre, and the women quickly followed, with in-depth Traditional Ngarrangkarni (Dreamtime) stories to explain their artworks. Queenie, Mabel and Madigan are renowned strong women, always workers, great organisers and teachers of culture to the young Kitja women. The content of Mabel’s paintings centres on Springvale (Darrajayn), as does the works of her brother International Artist Rusty Peters. Mabel has participated in many Exhibitions and was included in the prestigious Australian Heritage Commission Art Award in 1994. In 1995 she was part of the exhibition ‘Paintings by Warmun Women’ in Canberra. Solo Exhibitions 2000 • Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne 2004 • Kaliman Gallery, Sydney Selected Group Exhibitions 1994 • 11th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin • Maintaining Family Tradition, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide • The 2nd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra 1995 • Paintings by Warmun Women, Australian Girls Own Gallery, Canberra 1999 • Bush Garden, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle • East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra • Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne • Hogarth Galleries, Sydney • Japingka Gallery, Fremantle • Karen Brown Gallery, Darwin • Short Street Gallery, Broome • Spirits from an Empty Land, Riverside Studios, London 2000 • 17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin • Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra • Bett Gallery, Hobart • Contemporary art of Australian Aborigines, Adelhausermuseum, Freiburg, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Gallery Baehr, Speyer) • Art of the Aborigines, Leverkusen and Dormagen, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Gallery Baehr, Speyer) • Limited Edition Prints, Chrysalis Publishing, Melbourne • Past Modern, Short Street Gallery, Broome • State of My Country, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney • The Collection. Aboriginal Fine Art & Weavings, Gallery Australis, Adelaide • Contemporary painting of Australian Aborigines, Städtische Gallery, Traunstein, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Gallery Baehr, Speyer) 2001 • 18th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin • Beyond Wings, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide • The Unseen in Scene, Städtische Gallery Wolfsburg, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Gallery Baehr, Speyer) • Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane • Ochres, Short Street Gallery, Broome • Short on Size, Short Street Gallery, Broome 2002 • Art from Australia, Art Association Aschaffenburg, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Gallery Baehr, Speyer) • Easter Show, Bett Gallery, Hobart • Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne • Aboriginal Art Gallery Baehr, Speyer, Germany • Love Your Work, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle • Span Galleries, Melbourne • Thornquest Gallery, Southport • Women of the East Kimberley, Tandanya, National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide 2003 • Garmerrun: All Our Country, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide • Big Country. Works from the Flinders University Art Museum collection, Flinders University City Gallery, Adelaide • East Kimberley Show, Short Street Gallery, Broome • Masters Exhibition, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs • Recent Works in Orchre by Warmun, Framed Gallery, Darwin • Six Warmun Women Painting Country, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs • The Moon Show, Short Street Gallery, Broome, (in co-operation with ArtHouse Gallery, Sydney) • The World Luxury Cruise Ship, Australasis (in co-operation with Thornquest Gallery, Southport) • True Stories. Art of the East Kimberley, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 2004 • Stadtgalerie Bamberg Villa Dessauer, Bamberg, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Gallery Baehr, Speyer) 2005 • Best of Warmun, Gadfly Gallery, Perth • Waterhole Show 11, Grant Pirrie (in co-operation with Raft Artspace), Sydney Collections • Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney • Art Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane • Artbank, Sydney • Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia, Perth • Broadmeadows Public Hospital, Melbourne • Edith Cowan University Art Collection, Perth • FTB Group Collection • Harland Collection • Harvey Wagner Collection, USA • Kaplan Collection, USA • Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth • National Australia Bank • National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne • Northern Territory University, Darwin Literature • Big Country. Works from the Flinders University Art Museum Collection. Flinders University City Gallery (Hrsg.), Adelaide 2003, Aust. Cat., ISBN 072581103X • Das Verborgene im Sichtbaren. The Unseen in Scene. Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer, Cultural Department Bayer, Leverkusen, Bayer Australia, Sydney (Hrsg.), Speyer 2000, Aust. Cat., ISBN 3980707202 • Meeuwsen, Franca. Aboriginal Kunst, de verhalen vertellen, Zwolle 2000, ISBN 9040095078 • The Eighteenth National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Telstra, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (Hrsg.), Darwin 2001, Aust. Cat., ISBN 072454464X • The Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award. The Art of Place. Australian Heritage Commission (Hrsg.). Canberra 2000, Aust. Cat. • The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. Kleinert, S. and Neale, M. (Hrsg.). Oxford Univ. Press, Melbourne 2000, ISBN 0195506599 • True Stories. Art of the East Kimberley. The Art Gallery of New South Wales (Hrsg.), Sydney 2002, Aust. Broch. A detailed market analysis will arrive shortly Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

GENEVIEVE LOY KEMARR | AKWERLKERRMWERLKERR | PADDINGTON Location: Cooee Art Paddington From 16 January to 08 February 2020 GENEVIEVE LOY KEMARR | AKWERLKERRMWERLKERR | PADDINGTON Artist: Genevieve Loy Kemarr From 16 January to 08 February 2020 GENEVIEVE LOY KEMARR | AKWERLKERRMWERLKERR | PADDINGTON Artist: Genevieve Loy Kemarr From 16 January to 08 February 2020 Location: Cooee Art Paddington Cooee Art Gallery is pleased to present a wonderfully colourful and exciting solo exhibition by Genevieve Kemarr Loy, an emerging artist from the Utopia region. Genevieve is the granddaughter of Artist Nancy Petyarr and daughter of Cowboy Loy Pwerl, from whom she learned how and what subjects to paint. She paints her father’s country, which lies on the western side of Sandover River on Utopia Station. Her story is of the Bush Turkey, for which her father is senior custodian. She is one of the most naturally gifted and inspiring painters to have come out of the Utopia region in some time. Since 2010, she has been a finalist in the Blake Prize, the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, the Paddington Art Prize, the Fleurieu Art Prize, the Churchie, the National Emerging Art Exhibition, and the Alice Prize. Her works have been acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia, Deakin University, Melbourne, along with numerous private collections around the world. Genevieve’s works show a natural grasp of colour, design, and resolved aesthetic direction. Her Arwengerrp (Bush Turkey) and Akwerlkerrmwerlkerr (Green Plant) paintings combine the traditional meticulous dots with elegant wisps, creating vibrant, pulsating, and richly textured surfaces. Genevieve’s paintings are characterised by the gently beautiful handling of paint, a harmonious sense of colour and great control of the delicate spidery marks that make their way across her canvas. While these works are solidly planted within the established cultural conventions, Genevieve’s paintings are original and independently inspired; they represent her own re-imagining of the Dreaming stories. The strong diagonals that anchor each painting are a stylistic choice that represent the spatial ‘Dream lines’. To borrow from Margo Neale, they evoke ‘a sense of the timelessness embodied in ancestral continuity’. The works all relate directly to the ‘creator of her country’, the Bush Turkey, and while Cowboy Loy depicts the nesting place of the Bush Turkey, Genevieve shows its tracks as it travels between its nesting place and various waterholes searching for seeds and other tucker. On a more complex cultural level, her works relate to Anmatyerr ceremonies, offering a significant depiction of the relationship between Genevieve and her country in Utopia, Central Australia. Dr. Christine Nicholls has referred to the paintings of Iylenty artists, of which Genevieve is the most inspired descendent, as being “more than simple reconstructions of visible spatial features”. They offer “an integrated spatial, environmental, economic, spiritual and moral ‘reading’ of the land”. VIEW CATALOGUE EX 195

Artist Profile for Leston Japaljarri Spencer < Back Leston Japaljarri Spencer Leston Japaljarri Spencer ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE LESTON JAPALJARRI SPENCER - WARNA JUKURRPA (SNAKE DREAMING) SOLD AU$260.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Leston Japaljarri Spencer 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 .

TjampitjinBoxer Boxer Milner Tjampitjin Boxer Milner Tjampitjin 1935 - 2009 Melnga After many of the oldest and most venerated men who began painting at Balgo Hills in the late 1980’s had already passed away, one artist emerged during the late ’90s and early 2000s, who may come to be considered the most remarkable of them all. Boxer Milner, a tall, gentle old cattleman began painting quite minimal, small, rigid, paintings with linear shapes and large amounts of monochromatic dotting in the late 1980's. Growing in confidence as an artist through the 1990’s, his paintings veered further and further away from conventional Balgo aesthetics as he went on to create ever more exciting and challenging compositions. His work stands out as the very best the region has produced in paintings that offer an entirely different vision from the vivid depictions of sandy desert country, characteristic of the majority of Balgo artists. Born at Milnga-Milnga, south-west of Billiluna near Sturt Creek c.1934, Boxer was one of a small number who come from the transition zone between the desert and the river country. This is Tjaru land, where the country and vegetation move from flat and featureless rolling spinifex plains to flood plains with enormous river channels and permanent water holes. Here the yearly cycles of flood and dry create swamps with abundant bird life, through which runs Purkitji, or Sturt Creek. It is the intimate knowledge of all the facets of the river system as a traditional owner of Purkitji, which informed the majority of Boxer’s paintings and his unique aesthetic. He represented this land in a way that was more than just physical - it was geographic, meteorological and mythical. His country is redolent with colours, landmarks, and a life force very different to that which exists only a short distance to the South, where the Great Sandy Desert begins. Paintings from this region have colours - blues and greens - that are not found elsewhere in Balgo art. In Boxer’s paintings, floodwaters are coloured by the white silt of the surrounding clay country. This is the ‘milk water’, which features in many of Boxer’s works, providing a geometric grid against which the rest of the landscape is represented, imposing carefully depicted boundaries of story over the land. His motifs refer to the miraculous transformations in the land and sky as new life seeps into the flat lands; of the passage of water and the changing coloured tides; and the mythological drama associated with the sight and sound of thunder, lightning, rain, and brilliant rainbows. Colour changes represent the trees and vegetation, the red and white stones, the black soil, the myriad channels and tributaries, the hills and the contours that define the artist’s home. All this is contained within the dot and line work that surrounds the inescapable forms and patterns that he employed to portray Purkitji. Boxer’s paintings are characterised by a masterful sense of composition and an innate ability to mix and marry colours on the canvas. Stylistically his paintings take the linear compositional elements developed by artists such as Lucy Yukenbarri and John Lee Tjakamarra, and elevate them to a level unparalleled by any other painter. His incredibly large hands painted with great control, assurance, and precision, using a two handed action that was an absolute expression of patience and integrity. Former art co-ordinator, Erica Izett, described his colour fields as ‘mesmerising and precisely articulated. Each dot is applied to the canvas twice over with a stick, so that it sits up, much like a frozen raindrop piercing water or dust‘. For Boxer, each brushstroke was measured and definite, with deliberate dots covering the surface of the canvas. While he may have begun painting with primaries, the finished paintings consist of an incredible range of colours, which he mixed carefully. He juxtaposed reds and pinks or blues and lavenders, filling the entire canvas with dots. The colours created by Boxer are different to those of any other Balgo painter and at times can be totally unexpected. A self-taught colour mixer, Boxer showed an extraordinary sense of subtlety and beauty. As he advanced in age his work stood out as the very best the region has produced. Tim Acker, now with the artist’s advocacy association, Desart, spent several years at Balgo Hills and knew Boxer and his art intimately. Despite having worked with Aboriginal artists across the far north and desert regions and with all of the great living Balgo artists, in his opinion there was 'no artist I’ve ever met like Boxer. His work is amongst the most distinctive of all Aboriginal artists, anywhere. His inventiveness, the way he plays with form, structure, and shape is unique, as is his use of colour'. Acker likened watching Boxer paint to ‘watching a sculpture being carved from stone'. He approached the canvas so patiently, assessed it so carefully, before recreating - dot by dot, stroke by stroke, in a thrilling variety of ways - the story of that flood-prone Purkitji country. Collectors have long recognised that the art from the country around Balgo Hills in remote Western Australia is amongst the most visually distinctive of all Aboriginal painting. The region has revealed some truly innovative and exciting artists since art materials were first supplied there in the mid 1980s. None more so than Boxer Milner, whose incredible sense of composition, innate ability as a colourist, and supreme confidence in the medium resulted in paintings that could quite easily be exhibited internationally without any cultural reference whatsoever. While demand for his painting far outstriped supply in the primary market during his lifetime, his fortunes have been mixed at auction where, other than a single work which first appeared for sale in 1995 his works were unavailable until 2001. In that year only one sold of three offered and since that time about as many sold as passed until 2007 when all three of those works offered entered his ten highest results. Mossgreen established the artist’s current record in 2007, for what was undoubtedly the finest work by Boxer that has appeared at auction to date. The work, Purkitji 2003, from the Elizabeth Jones collection, was featured on the front cover of its Australian Aboriginal Art catalogue and was offered with an estimate of $25,000-30,000 (Lot 18). Measuring 180 x 120 cm it sold after spirited bidding for $38,864, a figure more than $10,000 higher than the previous record set by Sotheby’s in 2004. Another work that sold in 2007 was created in 2003 and carried an estimate of $6,000-8,000. It sold in June at Joel Fine Art for $15,600 (Lot 48), and an unusually figurative work with plain white woomeras and boomerangs depicted in a field of coloured dotting sold in the Mossgreen sale for $10,950 (Lot 32). As a result of this favourable activity in 2007, Boxer’s clearance rate jumped by 4% with total sales for the year topping $64,000, his best ever to date. However, this fine result was offset the following year when only three works of the eight offered sold, and this depressed his career clearance rate once more, this time from 54% to 51%, despite his average sale price increasing by almost $1,000. The favourable hike in average price was due in part to the success of Rainbow Serpent at Sturt Creek 1999, a 180 x 120 cm painting which sold for more than $10,000 above its high estimate in Sotheby's October sale (Lot No. 134). 2009 confused the picture further. The artist’s clearance rate improved to 56%, with seven of nine works offered finding buyers. The most impressive sales amongst these set his second and fifth highest results to date. 2010 brought the sale of Rainbow Dreaming near Purkitji (Sturt Creek) 1999 for $19,200, making a new sixth place record, with a clearance rate dipping a touch to 55%. Two strong sales, in 2011 created new 3rd and 6th place results, and in 2015 seven of nine works on offer sold for an average price of $7,842 against his career average of $12,093. Boxer Milner prefered to paint canvases larger than 60 x 90 cm. As a result he has a disproportionably high number of results in excess of $5,000 compared to his overall offerings. Overall, apart from a poor clearance rate which is likely to improve steadily as good works come into the market, Boxer’s paintings have performed well in the short time they have been offered at auction. His works have been exhibited widely in group shows since the early 1990s and have been acquired by many public collections including the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. His two solo shows with Gabrielle Pizzi in Melbourne in 2000, and with Coo-ee Aboriginal Art in 2003 both sold out. Not all of his works are popular however. Boxer began painting at the beginning of the 1990s and works created prior to 1995 are definitely less accomplished than those that followed. A good example of an early career work was The Artist’s Birthplace at Sturt Creek 1993, offered for sale by Sotheby’s in November 2005. While the unusual use of turquoise to highlight several tributaries and billabongs adjacent to the river system was a harbinger of things to come, the painting overall is not stylistically dissimilar to more conventional Balgo paintings by lesser artists of the time. It was offered with a presale estimate of just $2,000-4,000 and sold for $3,120 (Lot 402). There is no doubt that Boxer Milner’s finest and most distinctive works were created between 1997 and 2005. He died in 2009 and, now that works in the primary market have dried up, it is likely that in order to acquire a fine example at auction collectors will need to study his oeuvre carefully and be prepared to pay significantly more than was the case in the past for works of good size and quality. 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