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==Background==
==Background==
[[Contemporary Indigenous Australian art]] effectively began when Indigenous men at [[Papunya]], in Australia's [[Western Desert cultural bloc|western desert]], began painting in 1971, assisted by teacher [[Geoffrey Bardon]].<ref name="Bardon">{{cite book|last1=Bardon|first1=Geoffrey|last2=Bardon|first2=James |title=Papunya – A place made after the story: The beginnings of the Western Desert painting movement|publisher=The Miegunyah Press & University of Melbourne|location=Melbourne, VIC|year=2007|ISBN=978-0-522-85434-3}}</ref> The youngest of the men who took up painting at that time was [[Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri]], encouraged by his older brother [[Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri]].<ref name="McCulloch136">{{cite book|last1=McCulloch|first1=Alan|first2=Susan last2=McCulloch|first3= Emily|last3= McCulloch Childs|title=The new McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art|page=136|publisher=Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press|location=Fitzroy, VIC|year=2006|isbn=0-522-85317-X}}</ref> A number of the men developed a distinctive style of narrative painting that, beginning around 1976, resulted in the production of several "monumental" works that included representations of both their [[Indigenous land rights|traditional lands]] and of ceremonial [[iconography]].<ref name="Desert art214">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Vivien|title=The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture|editor=Sylvia Kleinert and Margo Neale|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Melbourne, VIC|year=2000|page=214|chapter=Desert art|ISBN=0-19-550649-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Caruana|first=Wally|year=2003 |title=Aboriginal Art|edition=2nd |location=London |publisher= Thames & Hudson|ISBN=978-0-500-20366-8|pages=124–125}}</ref> Clifford Possum was the first to make this transition commencing with a related painting, also titled ''Warlugulong'' (1976), now held by the [[Art Gallery of New South Wales]].<ref name="NGA07">{{cite journal|last=Croft|first=Brenda|year=2007|title=New Acquisition: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri 'Warlugulong'|journal=Artonview|publisher=National Gallery of Australia|issue=52|pages=44–45}}</ref> The two images are amongst five that the artist created between 1976 and 1979 that mapped out his ancestral country, linking images of sacred stories to geographic representation of his country.<ref name="Cubillo"/>
[[Contemporary Indigenous Australian art]] effectively began when Indigenous men at [[Papunya]], in Australia's [[Western Desert cultural bloc|western desert]], began painting in 1971, assisted by teacher [[Geoffrey Bardon]].<ref name="Bardon">{{cite book|last1=Bardon|first1=Geoffrey|last2=Bardon|first2=James |title=Papunya – A place made after the story: The beginnings of the Western Desert painting movement|publisher=The Miegunyah Press & University of Melbourne|location=Melbourne, VIC|year=2007|ISBN=978-0-522-85434-3}}</ref> The youngest of the men who took up painting at that time was [[Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri]], encouraged by his older brother [[Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri]].<ref name="McCulloch136">{{cite book|last1=McCulloch|first1=Alan|first2=Susan last2=McCulloch|first3= Emily|last3= McCulloch Childs|title=The new McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art|page=136|publisher=Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press|location=Fitzroy, VIC|year=2006|isbn=0-522-85317-X}}</ref> A number of the men developed a distinctive style of narrative painting that, beginning around 1976, resulted in the production of several "monumental" works that included representations of both their [[Indigenous land rights|traditional lands]] and of ceremonial [[iconography]].<ref name="Desert art214">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Vivien|title=The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture|editor=Sylvia Kleinert and Margo Neale|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Melbourne, VIC|year=2000|page=214|chapter=Desert art|ISBN=0-19-550649-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Caruana|first=Wally|year=2003 |title=Aboriginal Art|edition=2nd |location=London |publisher= Thames & Hudson|ISBN=978-0-500-20366-8|pages=124–125}}</ref> Clifford Possum was the first to make this transition commencing with a related painting, also titled ''Warlugulong'' (1976), now held by the [[Art Gallery of New South Wales]].<ref name="NGA07">{{cite journal|last=Croft|first=Brenda|year=2007|title=New Acquisition: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri 'Warlugulong'|journal=Artonview|publisher=National Gallery of Australia|issue=52|pages=44–45}}</ref> The two images are amongst five that the artist created between 1976 and 1979 that mapped out his ancestral country, linking images of sacred stories to geographic representation of his country.<ref name="Cubillo"/> The artist's images of this period are visually complex, and contain a wide variety of patterns, unified by strong background patterns and structure.<ref name="AC2004">{{cite journal|last=McCulloch|first=Susan|date=April - June 2004|title=Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri: Larger than Life|journal=Art Collector|volume=28|pages=111-113|url=http://www.artcollector.net.au/CliffordPossumTjapaltjarriLargerthanLife|accessdate=4 April 2014}}</ref>


==The painting==
==The painting==

Revision as of 22:36, 3 April 2014

Warlugulong
ArtistClifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
Year1977 (1977)
TypeAcrylic paint on canvas
Dimensions202.0 cm × 337.5 cm (79.5 in × 132.9 in)
LocationNational Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Warlugulong is a painting by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri[notes 1] that in 2007 set a new price record for a contemporary Indigenous Australian artwork sold at auction. Painted in 1977 and owned for many years by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the work was sold by art dealer Hank Ebes at auction on 24 July 2007. It was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia for A$2.4 million. The painting portrays the story of an ancestral being called Lungkata, together with eight other dreamings associated with Clifford Possum's country. It exemplifies a distinctive painting style, developed by Papunya Tula artists in the 1970s, that blended representation of the landscape with ceremonial iconography. Art critic Benjamin Genocchio has described Warlugulong as "a work of real national significance [and] one of the most important 20th-century Australian paintings".[3]

Background

Contemporary Indigenous Australian art effectively began when Indigenous men at Papunya, in Australia's western desert, began painting in 1971, assisted by teacher Geoffrey Bardon.[4] The youngest of the men who took up painting at that time was Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, encouraged by his older brother Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri.[5] A number of the men developed a distinctive style of narrative painting that, beginning around 1976, resulted in the production of several "monumental" works that included representations of both their traditional lands and of ceremonial iconography.[6][7] Clifford Possum was the first to make this transition commencing with a related painting, also titled Warlugulong (1976), now held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[8] The two images are amongst five that the artist created between 1976 and 1979 that mapped out his ancestral country, linking images of sacred stories to geographic representation of his country.[9] The artist's images of this period are visually complex, and contain a wide variety of patterns, unified by strong background patterns and structure.[10]

The painting

Created in synthetic polymer paint on canvas,[11] and a substantial 2 by 3.3 metres (6.6 ft × 10.8 ft) in size, the work's title is taken from a location "about 300 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs associated with a powerful desert dreaming".[12] Clifford Possum would often collaborate with other artists, particularly his brother Tim Leura, and the brothers together created a 1976 work of the same name.[13][notes 2] Art critic Benjamin Genocchio referred to the 1977 work as also being by the brothers;[12] however, the National Gallery of Australia credits it solely to Clifford Possum.[9]

Detail showing the skeleton of one of Lungkata's sons, against a background representing smoke and ashes

While the painting has been described as showing the story of an ancestral being called Lungkata starting the first bushfire,[12] it portrays elements of nine distinct dreamings, of which Lungkata's tale is just the central motif.[9] Lungkata was the Blue-Tongue Lizard Man, an ancestral figure responsible for creating bushfire. The painting portrays the results of a fire, caused by Lungkata to punish his two sons who did not share with their father the kangaroo they had caught. The sons' skeletons are on the right hand side of the image, shown against a background representing smoke and ashes.

Around this central motif are arranged elements of eight other stories:

These Dreamings include a group of women from Aileron dancing across the land, represented by their footprints in the top right running laterally across the canvas. Below these are the tracks of a large group of Emus returning to Napperby (the artist's homeland). The footprints of the Mala or Rock Wallaby Men, travelling north from the area around present-day Port Augusta (in South Australia), can be seen in the vertical line of wallaby tracks to the left of centre. Further to the left are the tracks left by the legendary Chase of the Goanna Men. And the tracks of the Tjangala and Nungurrayi Dingoes travelling to Warrabri appear along the left edge of the painting. The footprints of a Tjungurrayi man who attempted to steal sacred objects run laterally along the lower edge towards a skeleton in the lower left, indicating the man's fate. A family travelling to Ngama is represented by their footprints aligned vertically in the right third of the canvas, while the tracks of Upambura the Possum Man run along the meandering white and yellow lines that provide the compositional structure of the painting.[9]

Warlugulong (1977) is acclaimed as a landmark Indigenous painting; a great work by one of the country's foremost artists.[15] Described as "epic"[16] and "sprawling",[17] critic Benjamin Genocchio called it "a work of real national significance [and] one of the most important 20th-century Australian paintings".[3] The authors of the National Gallery of Australia's book, Collection highlights, described the painting as the artist's most significant.[11] Artist and curator Brenda Croft agreed, considering it "an epic painting, encyclopaedic in both content and ambition" and "the artist's most significant work".[8] The work and the price it achieved at auction in 2007 are cited as evidence of both the importance of Clifford Possum as an artist, and of the maturation and growth of the Australian Indigenous art market.[18][19]

Sale history

Warlugulong was first purchased for A$1,200 by the Commonwealth Bank in 1977, which had the work hung in a bank training centre cafeteria, on the Mornington Peninsula.[20] The bank sold it by auction in 1996. The auction house trading the work expected it to fetch around $5,000 and did not make a feature of it in the catalogue, but dealers including Hank Ebes, the successful bidder, recognised the painting's significance and it sold for $36,000 plus commission.[21] After hanging in Ebes's living room for eleven years,[21] it was auctioned in Melbourne by Sotheby's on 24 July 2007. It sold for $2.4 million, thoroughly eclipsing the previous record for an Indigenous Australian painting, set when Emily Kngwarreye's Earth's Creation was bought in May of the same year for $1,056,000.[20] Warlugulong's buyer was the National Gallery of Australia, which considers the painting to be possibly the most important in its collection of Indigenous Australian art.[11]

When the Australian government subsequently introduced a resale royalty scheme, the sale history of Warlugulong was frequently used to argue in favour of the scheme, designed to ensure that artists and their families continued to benefit from the appreciating value of old works.[15][22][23]

Notes

  1. ^ Tjapaltjarri (in Western Desert dialects) is a skin name, one of sixteen used to denote the subsections or subgroups in the kinship system of central Australian Indigenous people. These names define kinship relationships that influence preferred marriage partners and may be associated with particular totems. Although they may be used as terms of address, they are not surnames in the sense used by Europeans.[1][2] Thus Clifford Possum is the element of the artist's name that is specifically his.
  2. ^ A separate, smaller work with the similar title Dreaming Story at Warlugulong (Warlukurlangu) (1976), held by the National Museum of Australia, was painted by Clifford Possum alone.[14]

References

  1. ^ "Kinship and skin names". People and culture. Central Land Council. Archived from the original on 12 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
  2. ^ De Brabander, Dallas (1994). "Sections". In David Horton (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia. Vol. 2. Canberra, ACT: Aboriginal Studies Press for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. p. 977. ISBN 978-0-85575-234-7.
  3. ^ a b Genocchio, Benjamin (19 July 2008). "Buyer beware". The Age. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  4. ^ Bardon, Geoffrey; Bardon, James (2007). Papunya – A place made after the story: The beginnings of the Western Desert painting movement. Melbourne, VIC: The Miegunyah Press & University of Melbourne. ISBN 978-0-522-85434-3.
  5. ^ McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch Childs, Emily (2006). The new McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. Fitzroy, VIC: Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press. p. 136. ISBN 0-522-85317-X. {{cite book}}: |first2= missing |last2= (help); Missing pipe in: |first2= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Johnson, Vivien (2000). "Desert art". In Sylvia Kleinert and Margo Neale (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. p. 214. ISBN 0-19-550649-9.
  7. ^ Caruana, Wally (2003). Aboriginal Art (2nd ed.). London: Thames & Hudson. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-0-500-20366-8.
  8. ^ a b Croft, Brenda (2007). "New Acquisition: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri 'Warlugulong'". Artonview (52). National Gallery of Australia: 44–45.
  9. ^ a b c d Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art: Collection Highlights. Canberra: National Gallery of Australia. 2010. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-0-642-33414-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ McCulloch, Susan (April - June 2004). "Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri: Larger than Life". Art Collector. 28: 111–113. Retrieved 4 April 2014. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ a b c "Warlugulong". The Collection: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art. National Gallery of Australia. 2010. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  12. ^ a b c Genocchio, Benjamin (2008). Dollar Dreaming. Prahran, VIC: Hardie Grant Books. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-74066-609-1.
  13. ^ "Warlugulong". Collection. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
  14. ^ Tjapaltjarri, Clifford Possum (1976). "Dreaming Story at Warlugulong (Warlukurlangu)". National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  15. ^ a b "Aboriginal artwork sells at record price". New Zealand Herald. 2 August 2007. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  16. ^ Fish, Peter (4 August 2007). "A pretty good result all round, possums". Sydney Morning Herald (Business Day). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  17. ^ Coslovich, Gabriella (28 December 2007). "The cost of culture". The Age. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  18. ^ Smith, Terry E. (2009). What is contemporary art?. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 136–137. ISBN 978-0-226-76431-3.
  19. ^ Evans, Mike (2008). Defining Moments in Art: Over a Century of the Greatest Artists, Exhibitions, People, Artworks and Events that Rocked the World. London: Cassell Illustrated. p. 616. ISBN 978-1-84403-640-0.
  20. ^ a b Rintoul, Stuart (25 July 2007). "Clifford Possum artwork sells for record price". The Age. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
  21. ^ a b Coslovich, Gabriella (23 July 2007). "Possum's legacy beyond dreaming". The Age. Archived from the original on 6November 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |archivedate= (help)
  22. ^ Boland, Michaela (4 September 2009). "Flawed vision cops pasting". The Australian. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  23. ^ Taylor, Rob (3 October 2008). "Aboriginal artists gain royalties for resold art". Reuters UK. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010.

External links

  • Warlugulong — National Gallery of Australia collection
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