Crusoe Kuningbal, circa 1922-1984, A GROUP OF FIVE MIMIH SPIRITS

natural earth pigments on carved wood  
HEIGHTS: 76CM, 140CM, 188.5CM, 164CM AND 147CM  

Provenance: 
Executed in Western Arnhem Land 
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 (first and third Mimih Spirits in the photograph for this lot)  
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.157, cat.nos. 25 and 26 (illus.) (first and third Mimih Spirits in the catalogue photograph for this lot).

Cf. H. Perkins (ed.), Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2004, p.194 for two related figures by the artist and Sotheby's, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 26-27 June 2000, lots 141 and 143 for other similar examples.
 
Kuningbal was a great innovator and a profound influence on other Kuninjku artists. In the late 1960s he introduced sculpted figures of mimih for use in ceremonies. This was an innovation on traditional practice, separate from the dictates of the art market or the public domain. The first three-dimensional mimih figures were modest in scale, but Kuningbal eventually increased the size of the sculptures to a human scale and beyond. The tradition of large mimih sculptures continues today with Kuningbal's sons and other students of his creating sculptures over three metres high.


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