MOUNTAIN DEVIL LIZARD DREAMING - HAILSTORM, 2007/08

Important Aboriginal + Oceanic Art
Melbourne
14 October 2009
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Kathleen Petyarre

born c.1945
MOUNTAIN DEVIL LIZARD DREAMING - HAILSTORM, 2007/08

synthetic polymer paint on linen

183.0 x 244.0 cm

inscribed verso: Kathleen Petyarre

Estimate: 
$50,000 - 70,000
Provenance

Commissioned by Gallerie Australis, Adelaide (cat. GAKP0408528)
Private collection, Adelaide

Related works

For another earlier example of the Mountain Lizard Dreaming – Hailstorm see: Nicholls, C., and North, I., Kathleen Petyarre, Genius of Place, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2001, p. 45

Catalogue text

This painting represents an aerial composition of Kathleen Petyarre's sacred Dreaming site of the Mountain Devil Lizard, situated near Mosquito Bore on Utopia Station. It is here that the men and women of the eastern Anmatyerre language conduct important secret and sacred initiation ceremonies.

Representing a sacred women's Dreaming site, the centre of this painting is associated with the green pea (antweth) and the elongated X-shape represents two of the artist's Mountain Ancestors Dreaming paths. Throughout the painting are seeds (ntang) of the pea, which are an important food for the "traditional healer" (ngangkar), and the Mountain Devil Lizard (Arnkerrth).

The white painted areas represent hailstones (Puta Puta) indicating that a big hailstorm has passed over the country. Hailstorms are an unusual occurrence during the summer storms that cross the deserts of central Australia.