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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.