SHORTY LUNGKARDA TJUNGURRAYI

Painted at Papunya in 1972
Consignment 14, painting number 36 to the Stuart Art Centre, Alice Springs
Private collection, New South Wales
Sotheby's, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 25 July 2005, lot 79

See Bardon, G. and J. Bardon, Papunya: A Place Made After the Story. The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2004, p.486 for a copy of the original field notes and diagram produced by Geoffrey Bardon at the time of execution.

Early Pintupi paintings of narratives intended for children usually depict figures in a naturalistic style. However, Shorty Lungkarda very rarely drew human figures in his paintings; this is a major exception. The painting depicts a young initiate sitting on the ceremonial ground surrounded by the linked lines of the ritual sand design. The prominent black shapes represent the other ground drawings that go to make up the entire ceremonial space, which is circumscribed by a black ovoid outlined in white dots. The men who lead the ceremonies are depicted as black U-shapes at the upper left, together with the sticks they rub together at right angles to make fire

This painting is sold with the original Stuart Art Centre certificate bearing an annotated diagram of the story depicted