ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA)

Painted in 1986
Mary Macha, Perth
Holmes à Court Collection, Heytesbury (accession number 1586)
Sotheby's, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 24 June 2002, lot 111
Private collection, Sydney

Southern Reflections: Ten Contemporary Australian Artists, Art Gallery, Gothenberg), Kulturhuset, (Cultural Centre) Stockholm, Sweden; Stenersenmuseet, Oslo, Sweden, Galleria Otso (Contemporary Art Gallery), Helsinki (Espoo), 1998-1999, cat. no. 30

On the Edge: Five Contemporary Aboriginal Artists, Perth: Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1989.

Venice Biennale, Australia, Rover Thomas, Trevor Nicholls, Australian Pavilion Venice, 27 May to 30 September, 1990, label on the reverse

1990 Venice Biennale Australian Exhibition, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, cat. no.9, label on the reverse

O'Ferrall, M., et al, On the Edge: Five Contemporary Aboriginal Artists, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 1989, illustrated p.34.

O'Ferrall, M., 1990 Venice Biennale, Australia, Rover Thomas, Trevor Nickolls, Perth: Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1990, p.22, pl.9. A detail of the work appears on the cover.

The painting is in very good condition and the painted surface area appears stable. There are areas of very minor pigment loss to some of the white ochre 'dots' and very minor surface scuffing. The work is framed.
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According to Mary Macha this painting depicts 'A salt pan, Wurlangawarrin, near the junction of the Osmond and Ord Rivers ...  Bob Nyalcas the Chairman of Warmun Community is the boss for this country.'

The painting is an exquisite example of Rover Thomas's intuitive sense of composition  to create a dramatic but restrained image which links the physicality of the site depicted in the work to its spiritual significance, through a rich, visually textured surface.

The junction of Osmond Creek and the Ord River is some 70 kilometres east of Turkey Creek, near the border between the Kimberley and the Northern Territory.

The painting was exhibited at the Venice Biennale of 1990, the first time that Aboriginal artists (Rover Thomas and Trevor Nickolls shared the Australian Pavilion) had been selected to represent Australia at this most prestigious art event.  The Biennale firmly established Thomas as an artist of international standing.  Simultaneously, his work was also being featured in the National Gallery of Australia exhibition L'Ete Australien à Montpelier in France.  These events led to a number of commissions, including a group of four small works (now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia), which were published in the prestigious Gallery Maeght magazine and the beginning of serious international interest in Thomas's work.