Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

Acquired from the artist at Mudjinberri (Mudjinbardi) by Lance Bennett, in 1966
The Thomas Vroom Collection, The Netherlands

Australië: het land en de mensen, Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden, 6 October 2005 - 27 August 2006
Australia: the land, the people, Gyeonggi Provincial Museum, Yongin - Korea, 18 October 2006 - 25 February 2007

Lance Bennett’s accompanying documentation reads, “The artist has depicted a hunter spearing a male plains kangaroo. The animal has been painted in the so-called X-ray style, with some of the internal details shown. The heart is shown, with a lung on either side, and the backbone and ribs are seen.

This bark was painted🌳 for Lance Bennett during one of𓆉 his visits to the small Aboriginal community on Mudjinberri cattle station, between the South and East Alligator Rivers, in the dry season of 1966.”

No repairs or restoration. Cracking in the surface in areas to the facing left centre of the bark. In the lower section the bark is fraying due to what appears to be submersion in water at some point, with some resulting old water damage. Few small areas of pigment loss, particularly on the upper left foot of the kangaroo, but the vast majority of the pigment is in good and stable condition.
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