Spider "1" Namirrki circa 1925-1975

Bears inscription ‘Spider 1’ on reverse

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
Theme Park - Brook Andrew, AAMU, Utrecht, 17 October 2008 - 1 April 2009

The bark and pigments are in excellent order overall. No repairs or restoration, and only minor areas of pigment loss. A number of naturally occurring cracks within the bark, although overall the bark is in excellent condition.
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Cf. Hetti Perkins et al., Crossing Country: The Alchemy Of Western Arhem Land Art, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, 2004, p.38 illus., for another example by the artist collected by Dr Stuart Scougall in 1960.

Lance Bennett’s accompanying documentation reads in part, “Namarnde is a general term for the various spirits that inhabit the Arnhem Land plateau, a region which the Aborigines call ‘the stone country’. In the heat of the day, these spirits live in cool rocky holes. At night, Namarnde emerge to leap, run and gambol about. ‘The old people’ (past generations) often saw these spirits, and later painted their likeness either on rock faces or on the interior walls of their bark huts. The artist has here shown five Namarnde making love in a group.”