Ngalyod/Bolong (Rainbow Serprents) at Kidjorl near Bolkjam, 1994

130 x 57 cm

Est. $1,500 – $3,000

Hammer $1,300

Provenance: Maningrida Arts and Culture, Arnhem Land, NT, Cat No. 2969 Private Collection, Albany NY
Artwork story: The Rainbow Serpent is a generative yet fearsome being, associated with the creation of waterholes, billabongs and springs, as well as rain, monsoon and the refracted colours of the rainbow itself. In this bark painting, two entwined serpents coil upward, their bodies patterned with cross-hatched scales and diamond forms, set against an intricate field of rarrk (traditional cross hatch design). The imagery recalls ancestral narratives in which the Rainbow Serpent was both creator and destroyer, swallowing people only to release and transform them, embodying cycles of life, death, and renewal. Mirrikurriya’s work exemplifies the enduring strength of Maningrida painting traditions, where ancestral law is encoded into surface pattern and ceremonial design. The painting carries forward one of the longest continuous visual traditions in the world, embedding cosmological meaning into bark, ochre, and line.

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Sale 2 · Lot 41

Les Midikuria

b. c.1938

130 x 57 cm

Est. $1,500 – $3,000

Hammer $1,300

Provenance: Maningrida Arts and Culture, Arnhem Land, NT, Cat No. 2969 Private Collection, Albany NY
Artwork story: The Rainbow Serpent is a generative yet fearsome being, associated with the creation of waterholes, billabongs and springs, as well as rain, monsoon and the refracted colours of the rainbow itself. In this bark painting, two entwined serpents coil upward, their bodies patterned with cross-hatched scales and diamond forms, set against an intricate field of rarrk (traditional cross hatch design). The imagery recalls ancestral narratives in which the Rainbow Serpent was both creator and destroyer, swallowing people only to release and transform them, embodying cycles of life, death, and renewal. Mirrikurriya’s work exemplifies the enduring strength of Maningrida painting traditions, where ancestral law is encoded into surface pattern and ceremonial design. The painting carries forward one of the longest continuous visual traditions in the world, embedding cosmological meaning into bark, ochre, and line.