— AUCTIONS —
INDIGENOUS ART Searching for Symbols in Australian Indigenous Art For appreciators, admirers, and observers of Indigenous Australian art, there is a vast array of visual information to absorb. In many situations, we seek a deeper understanding of the imagery. The Papunya Tula painting style, for example, is derived directly from the artists’ knowledge of traditional ceremony. As this imagery of a sacred nature was not necessarily intended for public broadcast, many artists developed conventional symbols with multiple meanings allowing them to describe their work without revealing sacred stories to those who don’t possess the rights to their significance.1 Here we take a look at five Indigenous paintings both recently sold and pending auction at Leonard Joel and the symbols, or ‘hieroglyphs’ as Geoffrey Bardon terms them, that act as affirmations of story or place:
Charlie Tarawa Tjungurrayi
Larry Spencer Jungurrayi
Frog Dreaming 1979
Wati (Men's) Dreaming at Yarripilangu 1989
Sold for $10,625 IBP on 11 April 2022
Sold for $2,750 IBP 11 April 2022
Corroboree men, as shown through the ‘U’ shapes, sit around
At the top of this painting, we can see the rockhole site
campfires in caves as shown through the circular forms in
shown through the concentric circles. Either side are two
seven different spots across the painting. The wavy lines
men, as shown by the two ‘U’ shapes. Coming from the
connecting them are the tracks of the Frog Spirit Beings
rockhole is snake vine, which was often used as rope or twine,
as well as the rain outside. In the upper right we see the
as shown through the wavy lines with branched endings.
waterhole shown through isolated concentric circles.
Flanking the painting either side are two straight lines, which are the sandhills.
20 | leonardjoel.com.au
