Benedict Palmeiua Munkara circa 1925-1978

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 GBP

Sold

bidding is closed

Description

Benedict Palmeiua Munkara
Untitled, Male and Female figures of Purukapali and Bima
Carved wood, ochre decoration, softwood
36cm and 44cm high

Provenance

Executed on Bathurst Island in the 1960s

Lord McAlpine of West Green

Mary Macha, Perth

Fiona Brockhoff, Melbourne, acquired directly from the above in December 1998

Exhibited

Open Air: Portraits in the Landscape, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 3 December 2009 - 1 March

Literature

Andrew Sayers, Open Air: Portraits in the Landscape, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 2008, illus. p.27

Jennifer Isaacs, Tiwi Art/History/Culture, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2012, illus. p.168

Cf. Ronald M. Berndt and E.S. Phillips, The Australian Aboriginal Heritage: An Introduction Through the Arts, Ure Smith Sydney, 1973, fig. 172 and 173b, for two stylistically similar figurative sculptures by Benedict Munkara collected by Berndt in 1969. These figures are by the same hand as those illustrated in The Australian Aboriginal Heritage, although they are considerably more refined. Mary Macha acquired them from Lord MacAlpine when he dispersed his collection in the early 1990s.