Deutscher and Hackett

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LIN ONUS
ARAFURA SWAMP IV, 1996
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
182.0 x 182.0 cm
Estimate: $300,000 – $400,000

 

Deutscher & Hackett is delighted to present its forthcoming Important Australian Indigenous Art auction, to be held in Melbourne on Wednesday 26 March.

The 2025 iteration of this eagerly-anticipated annual sale celebrates the diverse practice of Australia’s most revered First Nations artists, bringing together exceptional works created over the past 75 years.

Highlights include major works by the movement’s canonical artists Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Albert Namatjira and Rover Thomas; superlative examples by internationally celebrated painters Sally Gabori, Lin Onus and George Ward Tjungurrayi; and paintings and photography by sought-after contemporary artists Brook Andrew, Michael Cook and Vincent Namatjira.

The carefully curated 75-lot sale carries a combined estimate range of AU $2,383,800 – $3,346,500 and will be shown in previews at Deutscher & Hackett’s Melbourne and Sydney galleries over the coming three weeks.

“When selecting from the large volume of submissions we received over the past six months, preference was given to museum-quality works, rare examples and exceptional works by artists with recent or upcoming institutional exhibitions,” says Crispin Gutteridge, Deutscher & Hackett’s Head of Indigenous art.

“As has been the case since Deutscher & Hackett’s first Indigenous art auction in 2009, we have only included works with impeccable Art Centre provenance or, in the case of artists who operated outside the art centre model, institutionally preferred provenance.”

The auction marks the start of a banner year for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art globally. In May, a new, dedicated Australian Indigenous art gallery will open within the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the result of a years-long renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.

In October, the largest exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art ever presented internationally, The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art, will open at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., before travelling to other major American museums in 2026 and 2027.

And, in July, the major retrospective Emily Kam Kngwarray will open at Tate Modern in London, heralding the Anmatyerre artist’s ascendency to international contemporary art’s top tier.

Five works by Kngwarreye anchor the Deutscher & Hackett sale, including the monumental cover lot, Untitled (Awelye), 1992, which carries an AU $400,000 – $600,000 estimate.

Last offered to the market in 2013 and measuring 164 x 228 cm, this virtuosic composition was painted at the peak of Kngwarreye’s lauded High Colourist period.

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EMILY KAM KNGWARREYE
UNTITLED (AWELYE), 1992
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
164.0 x 228.0 cm
Estimate: $400,000 – $600,000

 

Untitled (Awelye) was included in the artist’s 1998 Australian retrospective Alhalkere: Paintings from Utopia and the major 2008 retrospective Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, which opened at the National Museum of Art in Osaka before touring Japan and Australia.

“This painting is a celebration of colour and one of only a few works of this style produced by Kngwarreye, some small and domestic in size, others monumental and multi panelled,” says Gutteridge.

“Untitled (Awelye) is, I believe, the most resolved work in this series and shows the pure joy of Kngwarreye’s mark making. Here, intuitive combinations of blocks of hot pink, citric orange, deep blue and maroon create irregular shapes that pulsate and collide while remaining unified by the rectangular form of the canvas.”

Four other works by Kngwarreye adorn the catalogue, including the exquisite pink-and-cream Yam flowers, 1994, which is offered for the first time since 1995, and Life cycle III, 1994, from the esteemed Thomas Vroom collection.

Notably, almost half of the works offered this year are by women painters, highlighting the significant and growing legacy of female Australian Indigenous artists and their newfound resonance with international audiences.

Sally Gabori’s commanding Nyinyilki Country, 2010, carries an estimate of AU $50,000 – $70,000 and will impress those who attended the artist’s popular survey at Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris in 2022.

Angelina Pwerle’s meticulous Bush plum, 2019, ranks amongst the pointillist painter’s most significant late-period compositions and carries an estimate of AU $45,000 – $65,000. A similar red-palette work, held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection, toured internationally last year as part of The Met’s Oceania: The Shape of Time exhibition.

Makinti Napanangka’s Peewee, 2002 (AU $30,000 – $40,000), Kitty Kantilla’s Parlini Jilamara, 2002 (AU $30,000 – $40,000) and Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu’s Yemaya, 2020 (AU $20,000 – $30,000) all add weight to the catalogue. 

Several outstanding works by male artists provide a strong counterpoint to the abstractions of the women painters.

Lin Onus’s Arafura Swamp IV, 1996, carries an estimate of AU $300,000 – $400,000 and has importantly never before been offered publicly. A dazzling mosaic of layered representations, it carries all the hallmarks of the artist’s most celebrated compositions.

“Arafura Swamp IV show Onus at the peak of his powers,” says Gutteridge. “In this work, Indigenous and non-Indigenous visual languages exist simultaneously, creating two interwoven modes of viewing and systems of understanding that can be read as a metaphor for the broader act of reconciliation.”

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BALANG NAKURULK
(MR MAWURNDJUL)
NGALYOD, 1993
natural earth pigments on
eucalyptus tetradonta bark
Estimate: $50,000 – $70,000