Attributed to Deaf Tommy Mungatopi circa 1925-1985

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Bush Fruit and Minga (Body Paint)
Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark (eucalyptus tetradonta)
73cm by 60cm

Bears title on the reverse

Provenance

Painted on Bathurst or Melville Island
Sotheby's Aboriginal and Tribal Art, Sydney, 9 November, 1997, Lot 198
The Thomas Vroom Collection, The Netherlands

Exhibited

Uitgelegd/Explained, AAMU, Utrecht, 21 September 2004 - 17 April 2005

Catalogue Note

Cf. Takeo Uchiyama et al. (eds), Crossroads – Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art From Australia, National Museum of Art, Kyoto, 1992, p.50, fig.16, for a similar example by the artist with rounded corners, collected by Helen Groger-Wurm, now in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.

Among the Tiwi, Deaf Tommy Mungatopi was a renowned maker of tutini ceremonial grave posts which he was often commissioned to make for Pukumani burial ceremonies. And Mungatopi was an exceptional painter with the ability to evoke light, the dazzling light of the sun, of moonbeams playing on the surface of water and coral reefs, and the glisten of fine ochre patterns on the black skin of performers in ritual. This body painting design (minga, miyinga) on bark is layered with associations and references. The painting depicts a landscape rich in food resources: the yellow and white dots refer to bush plums, while the cross-hatched patterns may indicate vines hanging from trees. The white lines against the black bars indicate the shine of moonbeams. The beautifully worked painting surface is enhanced by the sgraffito diagonals along the horizontal bars, lending the work a delicate sensibility that is enhanced by the unusually thin piece of bark on which it is painted. The thinness of the sheet of bark suggests it may have been intended to be used for, or had been one face of a tunga or folded bark basket of the type used to collect bush foods. The tunga also has a ceremonial reference as in Pukumani ceremonies tunga are placed upturned on the top of the tutini grave posts to signify closure.