BILLY JOONGARRA THOMAS

While living at the small settlement of Billiluna, Billy Thomas began painting the odd acrylic work on canvas for Warlayirti Artists at Balgo Hills in the mid 1990s. Soon after, however, on a journey into Kununurra, he met Kevin Kelly, the manager of Warringarri Arts. From this time onward his preferred medium was earth pigment (natural ochre collected from the region). When Kevin Kelly left the 'official' art centre to establish his own Red Rock Arts in Kununurra Billy followed. His most important works and the exhibitions they featured in date from the beginning of their friendship. His works first appeared at public auction in 1999 and since then over 100 paintings have been up for sale. However, these results are dominated by small early works that have depressed his average price and success rate. Prior to 2018, Kangaroo and Spear Dreaming, 2001, had held his record since 2007. The painting measured just 90 x 120 cm, yet achieved $30,000 including buyer's premium against a presale estimate of $20,000-30,000, in Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art sale held in Melbourne during July that year.

A much larger spectacular painting, Gunambalayi Travels of the Black Snake, 1998, was expected to do far better when Mossgreen advertised the sale of the Ross & Rona Clarke Collection in Brisbane, in September 2012. Mossgreen had hoped to achieve at least $30,000 and possibly as much as $50,000. It just fell short of the previous record at $29,280, even though it was considerably larger at 150 x 180 cms. Though his best result was only $10,800, 2015 was a wonderful year for Thomas. Nine works were offered for sale and every single one sold. By the end of the year his average price stood at $6,799. Until 2018, 19 works have sold for more than this of which 12 had sold for more than $10,000, and of the 25 works offered for sale between 2013 and the end of 2017, all but 2 found a buyer, an indication that whenever one of his works comes up for sale it is hotly contested, especially if it demonstrates that spare earthy pale white aesthetic so prized by collectors.

Sothebys included three excellent examples of Thomas's work in its London Aboriginal Art sale. Gunambalayi Travels of the Black Snake set a new record price for the artist at $39,877 and Kangaroo and Spear Dreaming sold for $33,231 establishing his second highest record to date. Another Untitled work sold for $28,800, his 5th highest price ever. Overall 71 works have sold of 115 offered since they first appeared at auction in 1999. A stronger indicator of their success however is his sales since 2014. No less than 24 sold of 27 offered during the last 3 years is the best indicator that the finest works by this artist are considered to be highly desirable and worthy of the finest collections.