AUCTION | Aboriginal Works of Art | 4 June 2019

LOT #15 Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula (1925-2001) Old Man’s Story, 1971 31 x 38 cm : Frame 57.5 x 66 cm synthetic polymer paint on composition board $8,000 - 11,000 PROVENANCE Stuart Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Cat No. 48 Private Collection, NT Joel Fine Art, June 2008, Lot No. 159 Private Collection, Vic bears Stuart Art Centre label with title, artist’s name, a drawing with identification annotations by Pat Hogan, together with the annotation ‘2 Con No 48’ verso This small work is known to be only the fourth work that this seminal Western Desert painter ever created. It was catalogued one week prior to Billy Stockman’s renowned Wild Potato Dreaming (2 Con 49) that sold at Sotheby’s in 1998 for $201,500 setting a new high watermark for any Aboriginal painting at that time. It was sold by Pat Hogan, along with a number of the most important Papunya works ever created, from the second consignment of work from Papunya at the very dawn of the Western Desert art movement in 1971.