DIRD DJANG, MOON DREAMING, c.1994

Important Aboriginal Art
Melbourne
25 March 2009
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MICK KUBARKKU

(c.1922 - 2008)
DIRD DJANG, MOON DREAMING, c.1994

natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

127.0 x 72.0 cm (irregular)

Estimate: 
$8,000 - 12,000
Sold for $19,200 (inc. BP) in Auction 7 - 25 March 2009, Melbourne
Provenance

Maningrida Arts and Culture, Northern Territory
Framed Gallery, Darwin
Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne

Exhibited

Aboriginal Art 2003, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne, July 2003, cat. 31

Related works

for other versions of this subject matter executed by the artist in 1990 and held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, see Ryan, J., SpiritIn Land: Bark Paintings from Arnhem Land, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1990, p. vii and p. 81, fig. 20, and West. M., Rainbow, Sugarbag and Moon:Two Artists of the Stone Country, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, 1995 p. 3, pl. 1, p. 26, pl. 12, and p. 31, pl. 16.

Catalogue text

The full moon Bukkulurl is shown in this version together with the new moon Lirrk. This theme introduced by Kubarkku into his painting repertoire in 1990 is related to the site of Dird Djang, close to the outstation of Yirrkarrakkal where a large circular hole on a sandstone outcrop is reminiscent of the moon. According to the artist “A long time ago the moon was a man but he turned himself into the moon” (West p. 26).

In local mythology the moon is associated with the concept of mortality, rebirth as demonstrated by the waxing and waning of the moon each lunar month.