Artist: Narritjin Maymuru | Title:The Journey of the Possum and Guwuk to Djarrakpi | Year: 1979 | Medium: natural earth pigments on stringybark | Dimensions: 136 x 44 cm
Artist
Narritjin Maymuru (c. 1916 - 1981)
Title
The Journey of the Possum and Guwuk to Djarrakpi
Year
1979
Medium
natural earth pigments on stringybark
Dimensions
136 x 44 cm
Provenance
Purchased from Yirrkala Art: An Exhibition of Aboriginal Bark Paintings and Carvings, an exhibition presented and arranged by the Department of Prehistory and Anthropology, Australian National University (ANU), and curated by Howard Morphy.
Subsequently held in a private collection.
Exhibited
Yirrkala Art: An Exhibition of Aboriginal Bark Paintings and Carvings, 1976, Australian National University, curated by Howard Morphy. No. 5 in the ANU catalogue.
Story
Narritjin Maymuru created this bark painting while he was a visiting fellow at the Humanities Research Centre at ANU in 1979, working alongside his son Banapana. A painting of the sacred Marawili tree at Djarrakpi. The possums are shown climbing up and down the tree spinning fur string. A white cockatoo (Nyirrk) is sitting on top of the tree. The emus are scratching for water among the sandhills while the female Mokoys, Nyapilingu spirits look on.
POA
Email adrian@newsteadart.com to enquire about this work.
Artist
Narritjin Maymuru (c. 1916 - 1981)
Title
The Journey of the Possum and Guwuk to Djarrakpi
Year
1979
Medium
natural earth pigments on stringybark
Dimensions
136 x 44 cm
Provenance
Purchased from Yirrkala Art: An Exhibition of Aboriginal Bark Paintings and Carvings, an exhibition presented and arranged by the Department of Prehistory and Anthropology, Australian National University (ANU), and curated by Howard Morphy.
Subsequently held in a private collection.
Exhibited
Yirrkala Art: An Exhibition of Aboriginal Bark Paintings and Carvings, 1976, Australian National University, curated by Howard Morphy. No. 5 in the ANU catalogue.
Story
Narritjin Maymuru created this bark painting while he was a visiting fellow at the Humanities Research Centre at ANU in 1979, working alongside his son Banapana. A painting of the sacred Marawili tree at Djarrakpi. The possums are shown climbing up and down the tree spinning fur string. A white cockatoo (Nyirrk) is sitting on top of the tree. The emus are scratching for water among the sandhills while the female Mokoys, Nyapilingu spirits look on.
POA
Email adrian@newsteadart.com to enquire about this work.
Artist
Narritjin Maymuru (c. 1916 - 1981)
Title
The Journey of the Possum and Guwuk to Djarrakpi
Year
1979
Medium
natural earth pigments on stringybark
Dimensions
136 x 44 cm
Provenance
Purchased from Yirrkala Art: An Exhibition of Aboriginal Bark Paintings and Carvings, an exhibition presented and arranged by the Department of Prehistory and Anthropology, Australian National University (ANU), and curated by Howard Morphy.
Subsequently held in a private collection.
Exhibited
Yirrkala Art: An Exhibition of Aboriginal Bark Paintings and Carvings, 1976, Australian National University, curated by Howard Morphy. No. 5 in the ANU catalogue.
Story
Narritjin Maymuru created this bark painting while he was a visiting fellow at the Humanities Research Centre at ANU in 1979, working alongside his son Banapana. A painting of the sacred Marawili tree at Djarrakpi. The possums are shown climbing up and down the tree spinning fur string. A white cockatoo (Nyirrk) is sitting on top of the tree. The emus are scratching for water among the sandhills while the female Mokoys, Nyapilingu spirits look on.
POA
Email adrian@newsteadart.com to enquire about this work.
Artist Profile
At the time of his death in 1981, Narritjin Maymuru along with his brother Nanyin, and a classificatory brother Bokarra were the leaders of the Manggalili clan, a small nomadic group of about fifty people, who lived at Djarrakpi (Cape Shield), in North East Arnhem Land.
As with every clan, the Manggalili are associated with country, totems and design that places them on their rightful place within the North East Arnhem Land social structure. Each has a specific design, which they employ in body painting and artifact decoration for ceremony, as well as in their bark painting. It is as if, all of the clan designs together were a tartan map that covers the entire landscape.
Narritjin’s clan design consisted of diamonds, rows of dashes, anvil shapes and an X pattern that is derived from the breast girdle worn by ancestral women during mourning ceremonies. Narritjin used a brush of human hair, ‘ a marwat ’, to intricately cover the entire surface of his barks in geometric designs. The figurative elements of his compositions remained subservient to seemingly abstracted grid. Human, animal and spirit figures usually appeared in a silhouette black or with limited patterning. The contrast between the stark figurative elements and their intricate background created an optical clarity, but more importantly it highlighted the dominant purpose of Narritjin’s compositions, to relay narratives of great significance. Continue Reading