A large and striking aboriginal painting by celebrated Australian artist Yannima Tommy Watson (1935s-2017; Pitjantjatjara people from Australia's central western desert). Stretched and ready to display (no frame).
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Year of Creation: 2013
Title: Wati Kutjara
An important aboriginal dreamtime story from the Western Australia (the song line is also known as Two Men Dreaming), the narrative is about two young lizard-men travelling all over the Western Desert. They covered a vast landscape from Kimberley in the north to Southern Australia. The two brothers often took the form of wind and left songs in their epic journey to enlighten the people they encountered with rituals and knowledge. As magical ancestral beings, they destroyed evil spirits and created sacred objects across all over the Western Dessert.
Provenance:
Agathon Galleries, Melbourne 2013
Art Yarramunua, Melbourne (accompanied by a certificate of authenticity)
Private Collection, Melbourne 2017
About the artist (courtesy of Kate Owen and Japingka Gallery)
Yannima Tommy Watson was a celebrated Pitjantjatara artist, born around 1935 in the desert west of Irrunytju in Western Australia. Tommy was a Law man of Karima skin group, and his traditional names were Yannima and Pikarli relate to specific sites near his birthplace at Anumarapiti, west of Irrunytju.
As a young man Tommy learned the bush skills of hunting and gathering, living off the land. In these years his physical and spiritual knowledge of the land was deeply embedded in his life.
Tommy Watson first met white people at Ernabella Mission in the 1940s. He then spent decades working as a stockman and laborer on cattle stations. Not until 2001 when he was in his mid 60s, did Tommy Watson pick up a paint brush and painted his first picture at Irrunytju art center established by a small group of artists.
Watson's work became quickly recognized for his powerful use of colors and his mesmerizing creation of energetic movement. He exhibited in Alice Springs at Desert Mob and as a finalist at the Telstra NATSIAA Art Awards in Darwin. With his work becoming highly collectable, Tommy soon entered into an exclusive representation agreement with Jon Ioannou of Agathon Gallery. This arrangement marked the start of a second phase of Tommy's career and saw the creation of a large body of outstanding artworks which were to further propel Tommy into the upper echelons of Australian indigenous artists. This painting was created toward the end of that phase.
In 2005, Tommy was commissioned, along with Ningura Napurrula, Lena Nyadbi, Michael Riley, Judy Watson, John Mawurndjul, Paddy Bedford...
Category
2010s Modern Oceanic Furniture
