CORAL, c.1965

Important Australian Indigenous Art
Melbourne
26 March 2024
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© Deaf Tommy Mungatopi/Copyright Agency 2024
37

DEAF TOMMY MUNGATOPI

(1923 - 1985)
CORAL, c.1965

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

62.0 x 38.5 cm (irregular)

Private sale
Provenance

Painted at Bathurst or Melville Islands, Northern Territory, c.1965
Private collection
Sotheby's, Melbourne, 22 - 23 November 1999, lot 406 (attributed to 'Artist Unknown')
The Kelton Collection, Santa Monica, USA
Private collection, Melbourne

Related works

Coral Design, c.1965, natural pigments on bark, 84.5 x 44.0 cm (irregular), in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Coral Reef, c.1967, natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark, 71.0 x 50.0 cm, private collection, illus. in Isaacs, J., Tiwi: Art/History/Culture, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton 2012, p. 17
Coral, c.1972, earth pigment on bark, 80.0 x 30.0 cm, in the collection of Thomas Vroom, illus. in Isaacs, J., Tiwi: Art/History/Culture, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, 2012, p. 142

Catalogue text

Often commissioned to make Pukumani Poles for funeral ceremonies, Deaf Tommy Mungatopi was renowned for his fine attention to detail and inventive patterning. His signature style consists of a double set of webbed, slightly ovoid concentric circles, connected and infilled by delicately painted patterns of dots applied with the pwoja comb.1 As with the related works cited above, this painting on bark is an evocative interpretation of light reflecting off the coral reefs on the eastern side of Melville Island – a subject to which he returned many times.

1. Isaacs, J., Tiwi: Art/History/Culture, 2012, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, p. 142

CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE