ANATJARI TJAKAMARRA

Painting number 40, consignment 18 to the Stuart Art Centre, Alice Springs
Mangkaja Arts, Fitzroy Crossing

There is scuffing and chipping to the composition board with minor scratches and scuffs across the painted surface area. There are small areas of pigment loss across the board, visible in the catalogue reproduction. The board is in fair condition consistent with age and is housed in a box frame.
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Cf. See Secret Dreaming Story, 1972, in Bardon, G. and J. Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2004, p.452, painting 425, illus.; 'Wati' (Man's) Ceremony in a Cave, 1972, in Bardon and Bardon, 2004, p.450, painting 422, illus.; and in Perkins, H. and H. Fink (eds.), Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales in association with Papunya Tula Artists, Sydney, 2000, p.18, illus.

Originally attributed to Uta Uta Tjangala in the Stuart Art Centre records, this example displays all the characteristics of Anatjari's painting style. Fred Myers, Chair of Anthropology at New York University, who worked closely with both Anatjari and Uta Uta during the 1970s has confirmed this reattribution (personal correspondence). The row of concentric squares probably indicates caves as in 'Wati' (Man's) Ceremony in a Cave, 1972, and the repeated rows of hatched triangles echo the detail in Drawing 6 from 1971 illustrated in Bardon and Bardon, 2004, p.97. The painting also features a line of wallaby tracks.