Declan Apuatimi, 1930-1985, BIMA

carved ironwood, natural earth pigments, feathers, resin, string, human hair  
HEIGHT: 157CM  

Provenance: 
Executed on Bathurst or Melville Islands 
Aboriginal Art Centre, Gallery of Dreams, Sydney (Hogarth Gallery)  
Gabrielle Pizzi Collection  

Exhibited: 
Aratjara: Art of the First Australians, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 24 April-4 July 1993; Hayward Gallery, London, 23 July-10 October 1993, Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, 11 February-23 May 1994, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 23 June-15 August 1994 
Mythology and Reality: Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Tarrawarra, 23 November 2008-15 March 2009  

Literature: 
Bernhard Lüthi et al., Aratjara: Art of the First Australians, Cologne: Dumont, 1993, p.189, cat.no.61 (illus.).

Cf. For similar figurative sculptures by Declan Apuatimi, in the collections of the National Museum of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria, see C. Cooper et al., Aboriginal Australia, Sydney: Australian Gallery Directors Council, 1981, p.144,  pl.24 (illus.), and pp. 160-161, figs.N231, N234-236 (illus.). See also Jennifer Isaacs, Australia's Living Heritage: Arts of the Dreaming, Sydney: Lansdowne, 1984, p.245.  For a collection of works by the artist at the National Gallery of Australia, see also Margaret K. C. West, Declan, a Tiwi artist, Perth: Australian City Properties, 1987.
 
One of the leading and most versatile artists on Bathurst Island in the 1970s and 1980s, Apuatimi is renowned for his powerful figure sculptures. This work represents Bima, the wife of the apical Tiwi ancestor Purukuparli, the death of whose son marked the entry of the Tiwi to the world of mortals.