Mardayin Arm Bands, 1992

130 x 58 cm

Est. $2,000 – $3,000

Provenance: Maningrida Arts and Culture, Arnhem Land, NT, Cat No. MID144 Private Collection, Albany NY
Artwork story: Les Midikuria was among the leading bark painters of Central Arnhem Land, his practice deeply tied to the sacred sites and ceremonial traditions of the Balngarra clan. Painted at Boldkjarn in 1992, Mardayin Arm Bands represents the tasselled dillybags and feathered ornaments integral to the Mardayin, a major regional ceremony of Arnhem Land. These sacred forms, associated with ancestral power and clan law, are here rendered with characteristic fineness of line and the cross-hatched rarrk typical of Duwa patrimoiety artists. This work exemplifies Midikuria’s ability to both encode ceremonial knowledge and present a strikingly modern aesthetic of order, rhythm, and restraint. Its balance of figuration and abstraction, rooted in ancestral tradition, secured his place in major institutional collections during his lifetime.

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Sale 2 · Lot 22

Les Midikuria

b. c.1938

130 x 58 cm

Est. $2,000 – $3,000

Provenance: Maningrida Arts and Culture, Arnhem Land, NT, Cat No. MID144 Private Collection, Albany NY
Artwork story: Les Midikuria was among the leading bark painters of Central Arnhem Land, his practice deeply tied to the sacred sites and ceremonial traditions of the Balngarra clan. Painted at Boldkjarn in 1992, Mardayin Arm Bands represents the tasselled dillybags and feathered ornaments integral to the Mardayin, a major regional ceremony of Arnhem Land. These sacred forms, associated with ancestral power and clan law, are here rendered with characteristic fineness of line and the cross-hatched rarrk typical of Duwa patrimoiety artists. This work exemplifies Midikuria’s ability to both encode ceremonial knowledge and present a strikingly modern aesthetic of order, rhythm, and restraint. Its balance of figuration and abstraction, rooted in ancestral tradition, secured his place in major institutional collections during his lifetime.