Jack Britten

Painted for Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra, East Kimberley, in 1989 (catalogue numbers AP3351 and S-2798)

Hogarth Galleries, Sydney

Private Collection, Sydney

Sotheby's, Melbourne, Aboriginal Art, July 25, 2005, lot 44

Dame Shirley Conran, London

Acquired from the above by the present owner with the assistance of Tim Klingender Fine Art, Sydney in June, 2019

The spectacular striated sandstone domes that rise 800 feet (250 metres) above the surrounding grassy plains at Purnululu (also known as the Bungle Bungle Ranges) in the eastern Kimberley region are the ancestral home of the artist Jack Britten. Now a world heritage listed site, it is the scene of an encounter between two spirit beings in the Ngarranggarni (Dreaming).

Britten’s rendition of the landscape is built up of layers of red-brown and black, heavily resinous earth pigments. In parts, the mixture of Bloodwood tree resin and ochre produces a faint sheen creating a surface of great depth and complexity. The banded hills of Purnululu are described in alternating sections of white kaolin dotting and sgraffito lines. The incised zig-zags etched into the surface of the paint reproduce the traditional technique of incising designs into the hard surfaces of a range of ritual objects and weapons such as pearl shell pendants, shields and spear throwers; a sharp, pointed tool is rocked to and fro to create the continuous zig-zig. The presence of these marks in the painting associates the work with objects used in ceremony, just as the horizontal lines replicate body painting designs, endowing the painting with a spiritual dimension.

While Purnululu is the recurring theme in Jack Britten’s œuvre, Purnululu, the Bungle Bungles, 1989, remains one of his outstanding achievements. For related paintings in which the artist has used similar forms and incised surface decoration see Purnululu country, 1989 in Ryan, J and K. Akerman (eds. ), Images of Power, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1993, p. 51; Purnululu the Bungle Bungle in Croft, B., Indigenous Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 2001, p. 48; and Purnululu (Bull Creek Country), 1988, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, in Caruana, W., Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson World of Art series, 2025, pp. 186-187, pl. 155.