Bush Plum (Shield & Hooked Boomerang), 2010

synthetic polymer paint on bean wood

66.5 x 23 cm (shield); 76 cm (boomerang)

Est. $4,000 – $6,000

Hammer $2,000

Provenance: The Blythman Collection
Artwork story: Bush Plum, Ahakeye, is the Dreaming subject that runs through Lindsay Bird Mpetyane's practice from the batik movement at Utopia in the late 1970s through to his carved wooden objects in the final decades of his life. Ilkawerne, northeast of Alice Springs in the Sandover River region, was his country, and as its senior law man he carried the right to depict the ceremonies and stories associated with it. He was one of very few male participants in the Utopia batik movement, introduced to the medium in 1977 when Yipati, a Pitjantjatjara artist from Ernabella, and craft instructor Suzie Bryce taught the community to paint on silk. He was the only male to participate in the CAAMA community project whose works were exhibited at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney, the beginning of what would become the Utopia art movement. When the group shifted to canvas in 1988, Lindsay took to it with ease. He used four traditional colours: the two ochres, yellow and red, black and white, each with specific meaning. Black was a symbolic colour for him, not merely a background. Bush Plum (Shield and Hooked Boomerang) 2010 presents two carved wooden objects as a related pair. The shield, an oval form, is painted in a soft white ground with broad horizontal bands of near-black traversing its full width, a single black circle placed at each pole. The hooked boomerang carries the same banded design along its full length, the striping following the curve of the form with confidence, a single circle marking the hook. The ceremonial designs of Ilkawerne, carried with equal authority across both forms.

Catalogues207 of 257

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Sale 3 · Lot 59

Lindsay Bird Mpetyane

c.1935 / c.1942 – 2024

Region: Eastern Desert
Community: Utopia
Language group: Anmatyerr (Anmatyerre) – Eastern Anmatyerre

Bush Plum (Shield & Hooked Boomerang), 2010

synthetic polymer paint on bean wood

66.5 x 23 cm (shield); 76 cm (boomerang)

Est. $4,000 – $6,000

Hammer $2,000

Provenance: The Blythman Collection
Artwork story: Bush Plum, Ahakeye, is the Dreaming subject that runs through Lindsay Bird Mpetyane's practice from the batik movement at Utopia in the late 1970s through to his carved wooden objects in the final decades of his life. Ilkawerne, northeast of Alice Springs in the Sandover River region, was his country, and as its senior law man he carried the right to depict the ceremonies and stories associated with it. He was one of very few male participants in the Utopia batik movement, introduced to the medium in 1977 when Yipati, a Pitjantjatjara artist from Ernabella, and craft instructor Suzie Bryce taught the community to paint on silk. He was the only male to participate in the CAAMA community project whose works were exhibited at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney, the beginning of what would become the Utopia art movement. When the group shifted to canvas in 1988, Lindsay took to it with ease. He used four traditional colours: the two ochres, yellow and red, black and white, each with specific meaning. Black was a symbolic colour for him, not merely a background. Bush Plum (Shield and Hooked Boomerang) 2010 presents two carved wooden objects as a related pair. The shield, an oval form, is painted in a soft white ground with broad horizontal bands of near-black traversing its full width, a single black circle placed at each pole. The hooked boomerang carries the same banded design along its full length, the striping following the curve of the form with confidence, a single circle marking the hook. The ceremonial designs of Ilkawerne, carried with equal authority across both forms.