Willy Tjungurrayi c.1932 TINGARI PAINTING

Painted at Kintore in 1985
Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
Corporate collection, Melbourne
Sotheby's, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 25 July 2005, lot 81
The Austcorp Group Limited Art Collection

This painting bears no visible signs of repairs or restoration and is in good and stable condition overall.
"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."

Cf. For a painting on the same theme and of similar scale and complexity in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, see Tingari Story, 1986, by Willy Tjungurrayi (assisted by Simon Tjakamarra and John Tjakamarra), and Untitled, 1999, a collaborative work by male artists living at Kintore, including Willy Tjungurrayi, in Geoffrey Bardon, and James Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press, 2004, illus.pp.96-97 and p.160 respectively.

This is an iconic image of Pintupi painting by one of the senior Papunya Tula Artists, '...the imagery of linked concentric circles has come to be understood as the classic iconography of the Pintupi painters of Western Desert art...this sacred geometry contains simultaneous references relating to ceremonial body paint designs, the cartography of country and particular narratives of the Tingari ancestors' (Perkins and Fink, 2000: 180). Willy Tjungurrayi and his elder brother Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi were among the first group of painters at Papunya in the early 1970s. Perkins and Fink state the brothers 'were among the most outstanding advocates of the characteristic early 1980s Pintupi style' (2000:181).

The Tingari narrative cycles are deeply theological and therefore not explained in great detail in the public domain. Thus, Pintupi paintings about the Tingari ancestors tend to be highly esoteric in nature. The Tingari are usually described as a pair of senior ancestral beings who, with a large following of other ancestors, moved around the land creating its features, including the life-sustaining fresh waterholes, and establishing Pintupi law.

This painting is sold with an accompanying Papunya Tula Artists certificate.