Munggurrawuy Yunupingu, circa 1907-1979, MADAYIN SACRED STORY

• Lot Sold $5,000 (Hammer Price)
• $6,000 (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium)

natural ochres on eucalyptus bark
bears artist's name, tribe, date and interpretation of the story depicted on the reverse
124 BY 40CM

Provenance: 
Painted at Yirrkala in March, 1964 
Gabrielle Pizzi Collection

Cf. For a related painting of a burial ceremony by Munggurrawuy, see The hollow log flying fox mortuary, c.1958, in Brenda L. Croft, Indigenous Art: Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth: Art Gallery of Western Australia, 2001, p.27, (illus.).
 
The clan design that forms the ground of this picture belongs to one of the Marrakula clans from Blue Mud Bay on the eastern coast of Arnhem Land. It is a Dhuwa moiety design of Munggurrawuy's mother's clan, the Dhapuyngu, who retreated to Groote Eylandt about 1900. The painting is rare in terms of Munggurrawuy's oeuvre as most of his works feature the diamond fire pattern of his Yirritja moiety clan - the Gumatj - of which he was the leader. The subject of the painting is a mortuary ritual, probably connected to the Wukidi burial ground close to the mouth of the Koolatong River in the north of Blue Mud Bay. The lower section of the picture depicts a mokuy (spirit) place associated with the long yam that is a theme in burial ceremonies. The central panel shows brolga feeding on the flood plains at Garangari, a ceremonial site linking a series of Dhuwa clans. The upper section shows flesh-eating creatures that cleanse the bones of the deceased, metaphorically preparing these for the second burial in a hollow log coffin or larrakitj.
 
Sotheby's Australia wishes to thank Professor Howard Morphy for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.