Auction Highlights: Two Centuries of Aboriginal Art

Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Kame- Summer Awelye, 1991.
Estimate £300,000–500,000.

A masterpiece by one of the most important Australian indigenous artists, Kame- Summer Awelye was created during a time of intense ceremonial activity. The colours and design allude to the painting of ritual participants as well as the flowers and seeds in the landscape of the desert.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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Anatjari Tjakamarra, Ngaminya, Grandfather’s Country, 1989.
Estimate £100,000–150,000.

This work refers to land in the artist’s grandfather's country to which he inherited ritual responsibility. In a literal reading, the smaller roundels represent hills in this region while the larger roundels represent freshwater rockholes.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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Alec Mingelmanganu, Wanjina, 1976. Estimate £50,000–80,000.

A striking painting by one of the leading Wanjina painters of the 20th century. The painted figures of the Wanjina ancestors are among the most iconic in Australian rock art and Mingelmanganu’s major works on bark and canvas follow this tradition and are limited in number.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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A Tobacco Crop Guardian Figure, Sokop Madub, Torres Strait Islands, circa 1888.
Estimate £70,000–100,000.

This rare figure would have been placed in a tobacco garden in the Torres Strait Islands to encourage growth of the crop. With remarkable provenance, this figure was collected circa 1888 by missionary Henry Moore Dauncey, and returns to a Sotheby’s auction after 50 years.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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Paddy Bedford, Ngarrmaliny-Cockatoo at Police Hole, 2003. Estimate £120,000–150,000.

Paddy Bedford’s paintings were influenced by the physicality of the land. This striking work takes as its subject Ngarrmaliny - a place associated with the ancestral white cockatoo.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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A Broad Shield, Victoria, Early 19th Century. Estimate £25,000–35,000.

A fine and unique early 19th-century broad shield with a stunning chevron pattern bordered with hollowed out diamond shapes filled with red ochre.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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Jananggoo Butcher Cherel, Bush Food, 1992. Estimate £30,000–40,000.

This canvas is one of the largest ever produced by Butcher Cherel.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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Enraeld Djulabinyanna Munkara (Tjipungaleialumi), Purukapali, 1950s.
Estimate £20,000–30,000.

This fine example of Munkara’s figurative sculptures of the ancestral being Purukapali was executed on Melville Island in the 1950s and collected by Dorothy Bennett.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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Warlimpirringa Tjapaltjarri, Mamultjunkunya, 2009. Estimate £80,000–120,000.

This monumental painting draws the viewer into an ethereal desert landscape with a salt lake as its subject matter. The lines on the canvas relate to ceremonial designs that evoke the sacred powers of supernatural beings.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Fertile Desert, 1992. Estimate 60,000–80,000

This vivid painting represents, in the intricate web of successive dots, emus scuttling from nest to nest in search of bush food.

Aboriginal Art
14 March | London

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