- 57
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA)
Estimate
150,000 - 200,000 AUD
bidding is closed
Description
- Rover Thomas (Joolama)
- KANGAROO TRAVELS
- Bears artist's name, size and Waringarri Aboriginal Arts and Crafts catalogue numbers S-2643 and AP3279 on the reverse
- Natural earth pigments on canvas
- 80 by 160 cm
Provenance
Painted in the East Kimberley in 1990
Waringarri Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, Kununurra
Private collection
Waringarri Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, Kununurra
Private collection
Exhibited
Turkey Creek, Dreamtime Gallery, Perth, 22 uly - 19 August 1990, cat. no.5
Condition
The painting is in good and stable condition overall and in exceptionally good condition by a work by this artist and period relative to many other works in his ouevre. There are a number of minor smudges and areas of pigment missing to some of the white dots, particuarly near the corners and edges and on two near the centre. The oveall pigments appear to be in fine and stable condition. The work is housed in a hardwood "Waringarri Arts" box frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
Cf. The journey of Malu the kangaroo, 1988, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, for a work on the same subject
This painting is sold with copies of accompanying documentation from Waringarri Aboriginal Arts and Crafts together with copies of the Dreamtime Gallery exhibition catalogue, press release, artist's biographical notes, a press release from the Venice Biennale, price list and exhibition reviews and other newspaper articles from the period
The accompanying documentation reads:
"This paintings shows the road where the kangaroo (marloo) travelled in dreamtime from the spring at Turkey Creek (Warmun) to Nyila country near Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route near where Rover was born. It also shows the hill where the kangaroo rested in the shade".
A painting in which the artist makes the ancestral connection between the place of his birth and the region in which he lived and worked as an adult. Rover Thomas' life journey was connected to the Canning Stock Route. Originally surveyed in 1906, the Route cut through the land of several Indigenous groups to link fresh waterholes and wells for herds of cattle that were driven from the east Kimberley to the southern markets via the railhead at Wiluna in Western Australia. One result of the establishment of the Route was an Indigenous diaspora as people moved up and down the track to work on the cattle stations in the Kimberley, and as drovers and camp helpers along the way.
Rover Thomas was born at Kunawarritji (Well 33) on the Canning Stock Route, in land belonging to his people, the Wangkajunga, and was taken up to the cattle station at Billiluna, south of Halls Creek, when he was about ten years old. He spent most of his adult life working as a fencer and stockman on a number of stations in the eastern Kimberley region and in the Northern Territory. In 1975 Rover settled at Warmun on the edge of the township of Turkey Creek where he was able to reconcile his ancestrally inherited identities – the son of a Wangkajunga man and a Kukutja mother from far to the south – with those of the Gija and related groups in the eastern Kimberley. Paintings such as Kangaroo travels, 1990, express this connection.
The painting features a visually tactile painted surface carrying Rover's characteristic minimal composition of journey lines to intimate country and movement across it. This work is consistent with a number of similarly composed paintings the artist created in 1990, including several in the massacre series held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia; see in particular, Ruby Plains killing 1 and The camp at Mistake Creek in Thomas, R. et al, Roads Cross: The paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, p.45, p.50, illus.
Other paintings by the artist about his country of birth include Well 33, Canning Stock Route, 1991, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and a series of paintings dating from 1995 made after he returned to Kunawarritji for the last time (among these is Night Sky, 1995, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, illustrated in Caruana, W., S. Jenkins, D. Mundine, et al., The Eye of the Storm: Eight contemporary Indigenous Australian artists, Museum of Modern Art, New Delhi, and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1996, p.98)
This painting is sold with copies of accompanying documentation from Waringarri Aboriginal Arts and Crafts together with copies of the Dreamtime Gallery exhibition catalogue, press release, artist's biographical notes, a press release from the Venice Biennale, price list and exhibition reviews and other newspaper articles from the period
The accompanying documentation reads:
"This paintings shows the road where the kangaroo (marloo) travelled in dreamtime from the spring at Turkey Creek (Warmun) to Nyila country near Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route near where Rover was born. It also shows the hill where the kangaroo rested in the shade".
A painting in which the artist makes the ancestral connection between the place of his birth and the region in which he lived and worked as an adult. Rover Thomas' life journey was connected to the Canning Stock Route. Originally surveyed in 1906, the Route cut through the land of several Indigenous groups to link fresh waterholes and wells for herds of cattle that were driven from the east Kimberley to the southern markets via the railhead at Wiluna in Western Australia. One result of the establishment of the Route was an Indigenous diaspora as people moved up and down the track to work on the cattle stations in the Kimberley, and as drovers and camp helpers along the way.
Rover Thomas was born at Kunawarritji (Well 33) on the Canning Stock Route, in land belonging to his people, the Wangkajunga, and was taken up to the cattle station at Billiluna, south of Halls Creek, when he was about ten years old. He spent most of his adult life working as a fencer and stockman on a number of stations in the eastern Kimberley region and in the Northern Territory. In 1975 Rover settled at Warmun on the edge of the township of Turkey Creek where he was able to reconcile his ancestrally inherited identities – the son of a Wangkajunga man and a Kukutja mother from far to the south – with those of the Gija and related groups in the eastern Kimberley. Paintings such as Kangaroo travels, 1990, express this connection.
The painting features a visually tactile painted surface carrying Rover's characteristic minimal composition of journey lines to intimate country and movement across it. This work is consistent with a number of similarly composed paintings the artist created in 1990, including several in the massacre series held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia; see in particular, Ruby Plains killing 1 and The camp at Mistake Creek in Thomas, R. et al, Roads Cross: The paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, p.45, p.50, illus.
Other paintings by the artist about his country of birth include Well 33, Canning Stock Route, 1991, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and a series of paintings dating from 1995 made after he returned to Kunawarritji for the last time (among these is Night Sky, 1995, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, illustrated in Caruana, W., S. Jenkins, D. Mundine, et al., The Eye of the Storm: Eight contemporary Indigenous Australian artists, Museum of Modern Art, New Delhi, and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1996, p.98)