JOHNNY BULUN BULUN

Johnny Bulun Bulun was one of the younger bark painters who grew up under the influence of the greatest of the inter-war painters in Central Arnhem land and gained renown for his paintings on bark and as a seminal top end printmaker. The first 4 bark paintings to appear for public auction were all in Lawsons, Sydney’s deaccession sale of the stock of the then defunct government marketing company Aboriginal Arts Australia, in 1994. The only painting amongst them that attracted a buyer, sold for $1,320. And it was perhaps due to the fact that his works were freely available in the top Indigenous art galleries at that time, that of the 18 paintings that were offered between that time and 2004 only 8 sold and all for less than $1000.

It was not until 2005 that Sotheby’s sold a classic bark for more than $2,000 whilst Bulun Buluns’ paintings fetched at least twice that amount in his representative galleries. Flying Fox and Sacred Stones, measuring 178 x 62 cm sold reached its high estimate on that occasion and achieved $12,000 including buyer’s premium. However, that result, is still the artist’s highest price at auction, a record that has now stood for 2 decades.

Regardless, 6 paintings of the 42 on offer have sold for more than $4,000 and although the offerings of works by Bulun Bulun faired very badly his success rate for this medium is still 64%. His prints have had a similar result with 66% selling, the best of which have achieved prices pretty much in line with their primary market values.

Given the fact that his work was included in several seminal exhibitions of Aboriginal art, and he won the Bark Painting section of the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award and was honoured with the Red Ochre Award for lifetime achievement in the arts there is little doubt that Johnny Bulun Bulun is a much-underrated artist in the contemporary market. Works by far less important desert artists have been selling for prices that make those of Bulun Bulun extremely favourable buying indeed.

© Adrian Newstead