Painted in 2000 for Warlayirti Artists, Wirrimanu (Balgo Hills), Western Australia
Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
Private Collection, Sydney
The Dennis and Debra Scholl Collection, Miami

Nevada, Nevada Museum of Art, No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting, 13 February to 13 May 2015, and additional venues:
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, 20 June to 16 August 2015
Pérez Art Museum, Miami, 17 September 2015 to 3 January 2016
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, 18 January to 15 May 2016
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, New York, 9 June to 14 August 2016

Henry F. Skerritt, ed. et al, No Boundaries: Australian Aboriginal Contemporary Abstract Painting, Prestel Verlag, Munich-London-New York, 2014, p.151, p.161 (illus.)

Bears Warlayirti Artists catalogue number 171/00 on reverse. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas on stretcher, unframed. Please note there are some minor scuffs where the canvas meets the stretcher, approximately 6/7 cm long at the top left and right hand corners; another about 12cm down and 6cm in from top left corner approximately 3cm long and another scuff 2cm long near lower right hand corner. All scuffs would benefit from cleaning. Otherwise the work is in excellent condition overall with no visible evidence of repair or restoration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

FILMOGRAPHY Painting Country, 2000, Electric Pictures, Robin Eastwood Productions, the painting features in this film.

This painting was created in the days immediately following the Tjumpo Tjapanangka’s return from an epic journey back to the extremely remote country around Lake Mackay, where he grew up and went through his initiations in pre-European times, and where he had not returned for decades. Commissioned by NHK Japan and SBS Australia, an award-winning documentary Painting Country, followed this journey back to the traditional country of some of Balgo’s most celebrated artists - including Tjumpo Tjapanangka, Lucy Yukenbarri, Helicopter Tjungurrayi and Sam Tjampitjin. At Lake Mackay Tjumpo Tjapanangka, recounted: “I still remember it. I am from this place. I went through the law here. This is still my place. I grew up and became a man here… we were all naked. We belonged to this country. No white man here. No one else – just us. This was our place.”

Accompanying art centre documentation reveals that the painting depicts the landscape of Marlboree, ‘including a rainbow in the upper half... At the centre of these two halves are tjumu, or soakwaters, the top one is Wirrimbah, the lower one is Kukugugoo. It was at Marlboree during the Tjukurrpa (Dreamtime) that two ancestral men (Tjangala skin group), Marakudu and Kulada came upon the soakwaters. They could see Wanayarra, the ancestral snake, and reached in and grabbed him. They fought, but the men eventually won, taking Wanayarra with them on their backs, far away to new country’

One of the art coordinators, Tim Acker, who accompanied Tjapanangka on this important trip recalled the significance of this work when it was painted on the return to Wirramanu (Balgo Hills), and in the film he reflects that “The best of the work out here is as contemporary as anywhere you’d find on the planet. The fact that it’s painted by people whose background, whose perception, whose storytelling, whose priorities, whose whole life is so different gives it a quality that other paintings don’t have.”