AUCTION | Aboriginal Works of Art | 4 June 2019

LOT #12 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932-2002) Larumba Dreaming, 1994 125 x 82 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen $12,000 - 15,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Melbourne Vic Sotheby’s, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 31/10/2006, Lot No. 130 Private collection, USA Formed in the Dreamtime, at the dawn of creation, Larumba is depicted in this painting through a rainbow of colours and creative abstraction. Larumba was initially occupied by the artist’s ancient Tjapaltjarri grandfather, who wandered over this vast desert country in search of food and fresh water, which he found in abundance, before setting up a permanent camp. The tracks he left behind are depicted in the work as human foot prints, which are portrayed in a travelling mode near clumps of wild bush plums. At the centre is a fresh water hole, shown as concentric circles, which reveals the water’s sacred nature. Besides depicting a water hole, the concentric circles here, also represent a ceremonial sandpainting, that symbolises the ancestor’s sacred Dreaming site. Sacred also is Napperby Lake itself, which the artist has indicated using a complex pattern of lines that invite the imagination to see the Lake’s salty water as it flows along underground claypans. These twist and turn over a vast area, across, and under the surface of, this Ancestor’s Dreamtime country.