YAM DREAMING, 1971
BILLY STOCKMAN TJAPALTJARRI
poster paint with PVA Bondcrete glue on fruit box end
28.5 x 28.0 cm
Geoffrey Bardon, Sydney
Aboriginal and Pacific Art, Sydney
Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 2001
D'Lan Contemporary, Melbourne (label attached verso)
Private collection, Melbourne
On long term loan from Geoffrey Bardon to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1994 (label attached verso), and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1995 – 2000
Bardon, G., and Bardon, J., Papunya: A Place Made After the Story - The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2004, p. 312 (illus.)
This work is accompanied by a hand drawn diagram of the work identifying notations and a statement from Geoffrey Bardon:
'This work was completed on a fruit box end during the first several months of my involvement at Papunya. Bill later was most helpful when asked not to paint anything secret. This small design in May 1971 followed what I had asked of him. The design here is a variant of the popular Yam Dreaming. The concentric circles are yam plants, the ovals are the actual yams and the very small circles are the yam seeds. The curved shapes are boomerangs and the spiralling line is running water.
I was always moved by the transition from terrible squalor to majestic beauty, as happened with paintings such as this.'