Catalogues111 of 257
Click to enlargeSale 2 · Lot 18
Douglas Gallangawuy Dhumungurr
- Region
- Arnhem Land
Lightning Snake, 1996
122 x 62 cm
Est. $1,000 – $1,500
Hammer $900
- Provenance
- Buku-Larrnggay Arts, Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Invoice No. 0277 Private Collection, Albany NY Verso inscribed: 1331-A Gallangawuy 696 hike
- Artwork story
- Gallangawuy Dhumungurr’s Lightning Snake presents a commanding image of ancestral power, centred on the great serpent whose presence governs the onset of monsoonal storms across north-east Arnhem Land. The snake, elongated through the composition’s vertical axis, is flanked by water turtles and sacred objects, all set within the finely worked grids of clan-based rarrk (cross-hatching). The interplay of ochre tones — from the deep iron reds to the sharper white infill — evokes both seasonal flooding and the charged atmosphere of lightning strikes.