PADDY BEDFORD CIRCA 1922- 2007 | Merrmerrji

Painted in 2004 for Jirrawun Arts, Western Australia
The Estate of Paddy Bedford
William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
The Dennis and Debra Scholl Collection, Miami

Nevada, Nevada Museum of Art, No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting, 13 February to 13 May 2015, and additional venues:
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, 20 June to 16 August 2015
Pérez Art Museum, Miami, 17 September 2015 to 3 January 2016
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, 18 January to 15 May 2016
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, New York, 9 June to 14 August 2016

Linda Michael (ed.), Paddy Bedford, exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, p.162 (illus.)
Henry F. Skerritt, ed. et al, No Boundaries: Australian Aboriginal Contemporary Abstract Painting, Prestel Verlag, Munich-London-New York, 2014, p.39 (illus.)

Bears Papunya Tula number….A few minor marks and rubs around the painting perimeter consistent with handling during its production. Natural earth pigments, marble dust and synthetic binder on composite board. The work is in excellent condition overall with no visible evidence of repair or restoration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The ongoing relationship between the old and the new, between past modes of artistic expression and current methods is evident in Merrmerrji, 2004. In 1998, Paddy Bedford’s first public works were painted on sheets of board that found their genesis in the timber panels carried across the shoulders by participants in eastern Kimberley ceremonies, such as Rover Thomas’s Gurirr Gurirr ritual. Bedford soon moved on to painting on a larger scale on canvas, however in 2002 he returned to painting on board as well. The boards are on a portable scale, that, as with those carried in ceremony, tell only ‘part of the story’ due to the fact that in the ceremonial context, the ancestral or historical narrative to which the images painted on the boards allude, is elaborated through the associated choreography and song. Typical of the East Kimberley style, paintings tend to have a visual and physical tactility created by the mixture of sand or grit and paint. Paddy Bedford would often mix marble dust with pink ochre to lend his paintings a haptic quality, as in Merrmerrji, 2004. Merrmerrji, also known as Queensland Creek, lies in the northern tracts of Paddy Bedford’s traditional lands in his father’s country. WC