Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal Art

Jerry Kerinauia

Purukapali Fights Tapara

Auction Closed

May 23, 09:01 PM GMT

Estimate

12,000 - 18,000 USD

Lot Details

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Description

Jerry Kerinauia

circa 1890-1967


Purukapali Fights Tapara, circa 1963

Bears artist's name, title and annotations regarding the painting on label on reverse

Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 

13 in x 25 ¾ in (33 cm x 65.5 cm)

Sotheby's, Sydney, Aboriginal & Tribal Art, November 9, 1997, lot 22

Sotheby's, Sydney, Aboriginal and Oceanic Art, November 25, 2007, lot 38

Private Collection


Jennifer Isaacs, TIWI Art: History, Culture, Melbourne, 2012, p. 29 (illus.)

Jennifer Isaacs writes in regards to this bark painting:


"At Paru, across the strait from Nguiu, from about 1962 a group of artists became the first to illustrate the Purukapali story figuritively. Most were commissions, completed by Jerry Kerinauia, or Cardo Kerinauia, sometimes with Don Hocking. In the painting, the brothers hold sharp, double-pronged clubs, and standing symbolically between them is the forlorn figure of Bima, 'Wai-ai', holding the dead child. Purchased by John Morris for the mission; a number were sold to Dorothy Bennett".


Isaacs, TIWI Art, History, Culture, p. 29