CHARLIE NUMBULMOORE

Acquired directly from the artist by Tom McCourt on a visit to the Kimberley
Private collection, Northern Territory, acquired by the vendor from Mr McCourt's son in the late 1990s

Painted on an old recycled/reclaimed rough sheet of plywood, pierced with many nail and screw holes at the perimeters, with cracks and breakages to the edges and corners of the board, and further dents and cracks to areas of the surface. There are many areas of pigment loss. Painting has been professionally stablised and re-housed in a contemporary minimalist off-white box frame
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Cf. For related paintings and extensive discussion on the artist see Crawford, I. M., The Art of the Wanjina, Aboriginal Cave Paintings in the Kimberley, Western Australia, Oxford University Press, London, 1968; McCourt, T., Aboriginal Artifacts, Rigby, Australia, 1975; Ryan, J. with K. Akerman, (eds.) Images of Power, Aboriginal Art from the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, 1993.

Charlie Numblemoore's paintings of Wanjina figures are instantly recognisable to most collectors or students of pre-1980s Kimberley indigenous art. His distinctive Wanjina figures - whether full length images or more commonly, head and shoulder portrayals, initially came to attention beyond his homeland in the Ngarinyin country of the central Kimberley, through the works of Ian Crawford (particularly Crawford 1968: 25-27) and in a more popular work by the retired pastoralist Tom McCourt (McCourt 1975: 48, 52-53).

McCourt visited the central Kimberley in 1971 and purchased a number of paintings, on stone, plywood and cardboard, depicting Wanjina and other beings that Charlie had painted. Indeed the majority of the Numblemoore Wanjina paintings that have appeared in the last decade or so appear to have been derived from McCourt's collections. Most other collections of Charlie's works are in either State or Federal institutions.

Helen Groger-Wurm commissioned works by Charlie by on behalf of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in 1970. These paintings are now part of the National Estate (Ryan with Akerman, 1993: 20-21).

Charlie's Wanjina figures are generally readily identifiable. Those that are shown head and shoulders only are usually solid white (invariably derived from the mineral huntite) figures with details added in red, black and yellow. In the centre of the chest a solid, usually black but occasionally red, oval form said to depict the sternum/heart or a pearl shell pendant The almost circular heads are surrounded by a very regular, tripartite halo that represents headdress (and hair/clouds/lightning). The large round, black eyes fringed with short, delicate lashes usually occupy a greater proportion of the head in Numblemoore's Wanjinas than in those painted by other artists. Similarly Charlie's Wanjinas have well defined, long narrow parallel-sided noses, flared at the very tip and with the nostrils invariably depicted. In Wanjinas found in cave art, or painted by other recent artists, the nose is usually shown as an elongated, ovate with the tip filled in with solid colour. In other instances it is simply a blob of colour separating the eyes. Another anomalous feature common to many of Charlie's paintings, but only rarely seen in Wanjina paintings by other artists are the inclusion of mouth and teeth. . Generally he adding of a mouth to an existing wanjina cave painting (which are perceived as being wanjina themselves) is said to lead to all manner of cataclysmic events. This is not to say that Wanjina Beings do not have mouths, just that they perhaps should not be depicted. It appears that these latter features are significantly found in those Wanjinas commissioned by McCourt. On the other hand, Numblemoore's Wanjinas are seldom depicted with the hair-belt that commonly divides the abdominal region of many other Wanjina figures.

While Numblemoore's full-length Wanjina paintings do not reflect the cyclopean grandeur of full-length figures found in shelters and caves, they do project an atmosphere that is both confronting and questioning - perhaps raising issues that may have been passing through Charlie's mind as he entered the last quarter of the 20th Century -'We are from Here - where do we go now?' This atmosphere is apparent in the current painting under discussion - one of two very large (1.5m x 0.76m) panels each dominated by a single full length Wanjinas collected by McCourt in 1971. The first of these paintings was sold at Sotheby's July auctions in 2006.

In the current painting the main figure, set slightly off-centre, almost runs the full length of the panel. While the head is typically Numblemoore, very symmetrical and confronting, the body is more human in its anatomical proportions. Beside the right shoulder and extending to the top of the panel is a saltwater crocodile. On the other side are two ungkud Rainbow Serpents, with a third located beneath the right hand of the Wanjina. While Rainbow Serpents are intimately associated with Wanjina beings, other snakes, such as black-headed pythons, rock pythons and death adders also feature prominently in the mythology of the region. Rarely do paintings allow determination of the species - except in the case of black-headed pythons where the head is usually, but not always, painted black.

The lesser figures painted either side of the legs of the Wanjina figure are intriguing in that several are clearly depicted in profile view. The two larger - the almost foetal figure to the left and the standing figure at right with raised fists may represent any of the lesser cosmological beings that arte found in Kimberley mythology. These include arkula (evil or mischievous spirits of the dead), Narra-Narra and Wurula beings (spirits of honey and bush fruit/blossoms respectively) and Lulinja (Sprites that steal from mortals). Arkula are usually depicted with long pointed ears - very much like European depictions of imps, while Nara-Nara are usually depicted with stone axes, with which they cut open the sugar-bag, the hives of the native honeybee. Other figures, such as the Wurula and Lulinja beings can only be identified by artists who painted them or the owners of the shelters in which they may be depicted. The three smaller solid red-bodied figures may also depict bush spirits.

Rare in contemporary Wanjina art are however the inclusion of the two small red horses. Numblemore may have added these animals in memory of his own days in the saddle - as both a stockman and a tracker. Their inclusion however reinforces the notion that the Wanjina beings continue to exist regardless of the changes to the landscape and the introduction of new species to their homelands.

Charlie Numbulmoore died in the later months of 1971

Sotheby's wish to thank Kim Akerman for this catalogue entry