Aboriginal Art
Aboriginal Art
Purukapali Fights Tapara
Auction Closed
May 23, 09:01 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 USD
Lot Details
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