PADDY BEDFORD

Painted in the East Kimberley for the Jirrawun Art Corporation, Kununurra in 2006
Private collection

Paddy Bedford, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 6 December 2006 - 15 April 2007; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 12 May- 22 July 2007

Dolk, M et al, Paddy Bedford, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, p.112 (illus.)

The painting appears in very good and stable condition with no visible repairs or restoration. Housed in a black hardwood frame
"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."

Cf. For earlier versions of the same subject see Lerndijwaneman-Lightning Creek, 2000, in Michael, L. (ed.), Paddy Bedford, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, p.81, illus; and Lightning Creek, 2004, in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria in Ryan, J. et al, Land Marks, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2006, p.52, illus

An exceptional painting from the artist's late period, this work displays a characteristic lightness of touch and fluidity of brushwork, in muted tones from black to white. The canvas is divided laterally to suggest a horizon; the visual weight of the black upper section of the painting contrasts dramatically with a sweeping band of white to grey within which the forms are isolated and circumscribed by lines of white dots to create a typically asymmetrical but satisfying composition. This compositional device is in the manner of Rover Thomas (c.1926-98) who defined a particular aesthetic in contemporary painting in the eastern Kimberley

This landscape is part of the artist's depiction of the continuing ancestral narratives of the eastern Kimberley. Lerndijwaneman is a place in his father's country where the ancestral Bush Turkey, Birnkirrbal, landed after she left Karnanganyjel, the Emu Dreaming at Mount King, to the west of Bedford Downs station. Here she made camp and brought sleep into existence for Gija people. The Gija word 'Lerndijwaneman' translates to 'the place where (a man) made stone spearheads.' The man was the ancestral nightjar in human form. Intriguingly, the composition in this painting - featuring an isolated form in the lower left of the canvas - bears comparison with Rover Thomas's depictions of the massacre of Gija people at Bedford Downs around 1920 (see Karlarlungyu, 1990, and Kananganja (Mount King), 1988, both in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, in Thomas, R. et al, Roads Cross: The paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, pp.54 and 55 respectively, illus.