Walunja 2014

TOMMY WATSON (c1935-2017)

Pitjantjatjara language group
Walunja 2014

synthetic polymer paint on linen
160.0 x 358.0 cm
bears inscription verso: YANNIMA PIKARLI TOMMY WATSON #TW2014101

accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Yanda Aboriginal Art, Northern Territory

Provenance:
Yanda Aboriginal Art, Northern Territory (stock no.TW2014101)
Art Index, Sydney
Private collection, Canberra

Estimate: $80000 - 120000

Result Hammer: $80000

Yannima Tommy Watson was a senior Pitjantjatjara elder who was born around 1935 at Anamarapiti, forty-four kilometres west of the present day Irrunytju community in Western Australia. He spent a period in his twenties working as a stockman in the deserts around Mount Ebenezer, 200 kilometres east of Uluru, and then Yuendumu, before returning to live a largely traditional Indigenous lifestyle focused on connection to country and culture. Watson enjoyed an informal relationship with desert painting and the early Papunya Tula artists, becoming well versed in their methods, but did not begin to paint himself until around 2001.

One of the founding members of the art centre at Irrunytju, Tommy’s ascension in the art world was meteoric. His work blended an almost fluorescent luminosity with a deep knowledge of the topographical landforms of his country and the Tjukurrpa, or law that underlies it.(1)

His work gained immediate attention in exhibitions such as Araluen Art Centre’s Desert Mob, and at private galleries in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Coinciding with an unprecedented commercial boom in Australian contemporary Indigenous art, Tommy became one of the most sought-after artists of the genre. In 2006 he was one of the eight Aboriginal artists to receive an architectural commission for the Paris Musée du Quai Branly. The painting, Wipu Rockhole 2006, was enlarged on stainless steel tiles and installed within the ceiling of this famous museum.

Walunja employs the fearless and radical use of complementary colour combined with the precise dot work which have become the artist’s trademark. No less an authority than Judith Ryan AM, a former Senior Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, describes his work as ‘inward and liturgical’ and exhibiting an incandescence which is comparable to the early boards of the Pintupi men. 

Tommy’s canvasses comprise layers of dotted colour which are intricately worked like a tapestry or patchwork. Like bright geometrics, they are visually spectacular mind maps which evoke the land as seen from an aerial view. Watson presents a merging of country, journey, memory and dreaming with a confidence and drama which is both surprising and tantalising.  It is here, perhaps, that we should begin an appreciation of the art of Tommy Watson – at the nexus between colour and meaning.(2)

Watson was selected as a Finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2002, 2003 and 2008. His works are held in the collections of the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

Footnotes: 

1. McGregor, K. & Zimmer, J., Yannima Tommy Watson, Macmillan, Melbourne, 2010, p.8
2. Ibid., p.21

Cameron Menzies

• 

  Cameron Menzies, Chairman & Head of Private Sales

  cmenzies@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 466 636 142 

• 

  John Keats, Chief Executive Officer

  jkeats@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 3 9832 8700
  +61 (0) 403 159 785

• 

  Catherine Baxendale, Senior Art Specialist

  cbaxendale@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 2 8344 5404
  +61 (0) 423 067 180

• 

  Asta Cameron, Art Specialist

  acameron@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 3 9832 8700
  +61 (0) 400 914 088

• 

  Clementine Retallack, Art Specialist

  cretallack@menziesartbrands.com
  +61 (0) 2 8344 5404
  +61 (0) 478 493 026