ARTWORK PROSPECTUS Rover Thomas The Jabanunga (Rainbow Serpent) natural earth pigment on Belgian linen 180 x 270 cm completed on the 26 March 1996
‘this is, in my opinion, Rover’s last great masterpiece’ Adrian Newstead The Dealer is the Devil - an insider’s history of the Aboriginal art trade Brandl and Schlesinger, 2014
Artist: Title: Year: Size: Medium: Condition:
Rover Thomas The Jabanunga AKA Goorialla (The Rainbow Serpent) 1996 1800 x 2700 mm natural earth pigment on Belgian Linen The artwork is in perfect condition
Provenance:
Created in Turkey Creek for for Warmun Traditional Artists, WA
Information on the Painting The painting depicts the Rainbow Serpent penetrating the earth. The concentric circles represent both his eyes and vital organs and specific sites in the Pilbara where the Rainbow Serpent entered the ground on his subterranean journey to the sea following the destruction of Darwin on Christmas Day 1974. Representing the ‘big rain’, Jabanunga, the dreamtime Rainbow Serpent, is depicted attempting to penetrate the Ophthalmia Ranges, west of Mount Newman, to fulfil his destiny and return to the sea from whence he came. In a radical departure, Rover depicts his disembodied entrails, and vital organs. Despite it being one of his favourite dance stories, this work on linen is believed to be Rover’s first attempt at picturing the final chapter of the story, apart from perhaps some small early corroboree boards. Most stories relate the fact that in the beginning the land was flat and treeless and that the Serpent created everything. Some tell of the two boys that were swallowed by him, and were released in the form of two Rainbow Lorikeets, that escaped from his entrails after cutting his belly. In some versions the Rainbow Serpent is depicted with what looks like two horns. A close inspection of this image reveals the trail of the horns manifest as mountain ranges etched into the landscape. (The ragged Ophthalmia Ranges stretch 20 kilometres from Newman for a hundred and fifty kilometres in a north-westerly direction, before flattening to disappear into the vast plains of the Pilbara.) Adjacent to the ranges are many of today’s mining tenements, including the Hancock Ranges and Gina Rineharts huge Hope Downs mine. This is country that Rover Thomas’s family and related clan groups, walked on foot for eons, as they travelled between available water and food sources. The Serpent is thought to have risen in Lake Waukarlykarly, north of Newman, or Lake Dora.This is the country where Rover spent his youth, where Punmu, is located. He entered the Fortescue River near Ophthalmia, as it passed through Newman, and later travelled on to the ocean. The Fortescue mining group (FMG) has going concerns adjacent to, and derived it’s name from, this major Pilbara river.
Recollections Relating to the Creation of this work from Maxine Taylor and Terry Brooks:
Rover Thomas created this work for Warmun Traditional Artists in 1996, 5 years after representing Australia at the Venice Biennale. At the time we were the managers of this fledgeling art centre located in the Old Post Office at Turkey Creek. Each day Rover painted alongside the other elder members of the original school of modern media ochre painters, which included Jack Britten, Queenie McKenzie, Freddie Timms and Hector Jandany. During this time, Rover expressed a strong desire to travel to the lands of his ancestors, the Martu. He particularly wanted to revisit places he remembered from his youth. Days spent with family groups as they pursued their nomadic life, wandering, largely between waterholes to access whatever bounty that may have been available to them. He wanted to see his older brother, Charlie Brooks, who he thought was at Jigalong Community, a couple of hours from Newman. Rover had been ‘taken’ as a youth, by the infamous drover, Wally Dowling, to learn the skills of a stockman on the cattle drives to Billiluna Cattle Station at the northern end of the tortuous Canning Stock Route, which passes through three major deserts. Although the Canning starts further south at Wiluna, Rover was ‘picked up’ at Kunawarritji, his birthplace, and the family’s ‘home camp’, also known as Well 33, which is approximately halfway up it’s length. Our mission was to take him to Hall’s Creek, then southwards, for the first time, past Ruby Plains, Billiluna, and on to Sturt Creek, which marks the top of the route, hence down the track to Well 33.
Rover talked freely about many aspects of desert life, and events which occurred on the cattle drives. As we traversed the numerous, huge, sand dunes which dominate the terrain along most of the way, the few creeks, rocky outcrops and gorges, he related the story of the Rainbow Serpent, the ultimate Creator. Gazing out at the seemingly lifeless desert that he had helped to push the cattle through so many years before, he shook his head saying to Maxine, “No-good country, not worth two bob, you can have him”. It was not until after three days on track we neared Martu country, and visited the now-deserted Kunawarritji, and the desert community of Punmu, where the last members of Rover’s family were found to be living. Finally he relaxed, and we started to feel a real sense of achievement. His brother Charlie was located, and an emotional, and unfortunately, final reunion took place soon after arrival in Nullagine. We made a two-day camp on the upper reaches of the Fortescue on our way to Newman and Rover told how Jabananga, The Rainbow Serpent, rose in the desert and pushed up the huge hills, and indeed, Mount Newman itself, thereby creating the River, and the many creeks that flow into it. Later, touring the Newman town-site, (which he did not even know existed) and surrounds, he was deeply affected by the development which had taken place during his lengthy absence. One could sense his real emotion when the realisation had sunk in, that the traditional pathways, hunting grounds and habitats had been literally torn up, the terrain scarred by bulldozer and loader, and overrun by what seemed to him like hundreds of white Toyotas with flags on their aerials which were now speeding around everywhere.
Gurrir Gurrir (Krill Krill) re-enactment held behind the pensioner unit at Warmun 1995
Related works: When Cyclone Tracy cataclysmically laid waste to Darwin on Christmas Day 1974, many Aborigines saw it as a sign that their culture and traditions needed strengthening. A powerful dream, involving the spirit of Rover’s dead aunt, inspired him to create a song and dance cycle that evolved into the Krill Krill ceremony. The spirit described the details of a journey that she had undertaken after her death, in the company of other spirit beings. In Rover’s re-visitation of that dream he too saw the places and the characters involved in the saga. At the end of the song cycle the traveling spirit looks from Wyndham, across the waters to the northeast, and witnesses the Rainbow Serpent’s vengeful destruction of the Territory capital. The ceremonial re-enactment of this dream took place for the first time in 1977 and was repeated at a number of locations in the East Kimberley region, in Arnhem Land, and further field through the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. During the ceremony painted boards, depicting the important sites and spirit beings, were carried on the shoulders of the participants. The boards used in the early ceremonies were created by Rover’s uncle and mentor, Paddy Jaminji, who was assisted by Jacko Dolmyn, Paddy Mosquito, Rover, and others. Although Rover occasionally included figurative elements and topographical profiles in his paintings, his work is more familiarly characterized by an aerial perspective in common with Central and Western desert art. His most contemplative and sombre works draw the viewer in to spacious planes of painterly applied and textured ochre. White or black dots serve only to create emphasis or to draw the eye along pathways of time and movement, following the forms of the land in which important events are encoded. In many of his works the predominant use of black conveys a startling, strangely emotional, intensity. Warm and earthy ochres, and a palpable sense of spirituality, invite the viewer on the one hand, to consider the unfolding of important events, while at the same time, purposefully sustain us in an ancient and timeless landscape.
Rainbow Serpent Country Screenprint, ed. 13/49 signed and numbered in margin 48 x 91 cm Est: $4,500-6,000, Lawsons, Sydney, 31/10/2008, Lot No. 2035 Sold $5,100 The screen-print above was created by Rover Thomas during a workshop at Turkey Creek run by Coo-ee Aboriginal Art for Warmun Traditional Artists in 1998. It depicts the Rainbow Serpent travelling underground toward the sea following it’s rampage across the Kimberly and Pilbara regions of Western Australia.
Krill Krill Rainbow Serpent Wumgurr, 1994 Natural earth pigments on composition board 80 x 120 cm Est: $40,000-60,000, Lawson~Menzies, Aboriginal Art, Sydney, 30/05/2006, Lot No. 161 Sold $40,800 (as seen being carried on shoulders in image of ceremonial enactment above) The board was created on a recycled piece of construction ply. (Note the eccentricity on the white dotted surround is due to the artist following the outline of a saw-line that penetrates the surface of the rectangular board).
Untitled (Rainbow Serpent) c. 1986 Natural earth pigments and natural binder on canvas 92 x 87 cm Est: $30,000-50,000, Sotheby’s Australia, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 09/07/2001, Lot No. 51 Sold $87,500 The small work above sensationally achieved $87,500 when it came up for sale at Sotheby’s in 2001. Here the serpent represents the trail of the cyclone as it travelled across the landscape. Created in 1986 for Mary Macha it predates the artist’s inclusion in theVenice Biennale and his exposure to works by a number of international artists including Mark Rothco with whom his late career works have often been compared.
Mark Rothko Seagram Mural
Rover Thomas Waterfall at Kalumpiwarra
Mark Rothko Untitled 1960
Rover Thomas Wolf Creek Crater 1986
After his inclusion in the 1990 Venice Biennale and his solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1994 Rover’s work was in such demand that his pieces were hard to procure in the primary market. He was perceived as a world-class contemporary painter whose art was highly collectable, yet few galleries could gain access to his work. In 1994 there was no art centre where he lived and paintings were produced for Waringarri Arts only on those occasions when he visited Kununurra, or the art coordinator, Joel Smoker, managed to travel down to the community. Many independent dealers spent time at the pensioner unit in Turkey Creek watching him paint works that they commissioned and it was inevitable that one or more of them would arrange for the artist to travel to an environment where he could produce a body of work large enough to meet the burgeoning demand. From this time in his career, Kimberley Art in Melbourne became a major supplier of his works in the primary market. Kimberley art purchased paintings from Neil McLeod (for whom the major painting below was created in 1995, and later for the nascent art centre established by the Warmun Council in 1996 (for which the painting on offer (The Jabanunga) was created during its first year of operation.
Willy Willy, 1995 Natural earth pigments on Belgian linen 192 x 244 cm Est: $300,000-400,000 Deutscher~Menzies, Australian and International Fine Art, Sydney, 12/09/2007, Lot No. 43 Sold $456,000 (fourth highest record price for a work by this artist at public sale) Rover Thomas worked under a variety of conditions and circumstances during a career that was of major importance to the history of Australian art. His works have been amongst the most highly desired of all Aboriginal paintings and should continue to rise in value over the years ahead. While the steep increase in values seen during the five years following his death slowed during the subsequent 3 years, the best of his works are highly coveted and continue to rise in value.
Highest Prices achieved for works by Rover Thomas at Public Sale
All That Big Rain Coming from the Top Side, 1991 Natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on canvas 180 x 120 cm Est: $280,000-350,000 Sotheby’s Australia, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 09/07/2001, Lot No. 66 Sold $778,750 to the National Gallery of Australia
Bugaltji - Lissadell Country, 1986 Natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas 90 x 180 cm Est: $400,000-600,000 Sotheby’s Australia, Aboriginal Art, Melbourne 31/07/2006, Lot No. 95 Sold $660,000
Bungullgi, 1989 Natural earth pigments on canvas signed on stretcher verso: Rover 90 x 180.5 cm Est: $400,000-500,000, Deutscher~Menzies, Australian & International Fine Art, Sydney, 25/03/2009, Lot No. 39 Sold $528,000
About Rover Thomas Acclaimed as a cultural leader and the seminal figure in establishing the East Kimberley School, Rover Thomas is, according to almost every empirical measure, the most influential Aboriginal artist in the history of this movement. Rover began painting as an individual in 1981, at a time when the Warmun community was still small and populated by a core of older Gija people. There were very few private galleries that specialised in Aboriginal art at the time.. The Federal Government’s marketing company, Traditional Aboriginal Arts (Aboriginal Arts Australia *), had galleries in most state capitals, including Perth, where Mary Macha, who had been a project officer with the W.A. Native Welfare Department since 1971, ran the company gallery. Paddy Jaminji had been the only person carving artifacts for sale during Macha’s field trips to Warmun throughout the 1970’s. With assistance from Don McLeod, a field officer for the Department of Employment based in Kununurra, Paddy’s artifacts, including carved owls and ochre decorated boomerangs, made their way to her down south where they could be sold. In 1981 Mary Macha traveled to Turkey Creek with Mcleod on a field trip and saw Jaminji’s Krill Krill boards for the first time. These original boards, made only for the corroboree, were painted in earth pigments on housing debris, pieces of formica, wall panelling and wood from old packing cases. Despite originally refusing to sell boards to her, as they were used repeatedly in the Krill Krill ceremony and the board was difficult to replace, Jaminji later sold three shipments of paintings to Macha after she agreed to send good boards for him to paint on in future. In 1983 Macha left Aboriginal Arts Australia frustrated at their insistence on centralised buying and accounting from its Sydney headquarters, and decided to become an independent agent and consultant, representing Rover Thomas, Paddy Jaminji and other Western Australian Aboriginal artists. She remembered fondly Rover emerging from of a crowd at Warmun during her previous visit and, announcing himself to her, stated ‘Rover Thomas, I want to paint’. As a now independent dealer she decided to support Thomas and Jaminjii and brought them down to Perth in 1984 and on a number of subsequent occasions to paint at her home in Subiaco where she made her garage into a studio. Rover’s lead was soon followed by others and sparked a spiritual and cultural revival within the community, gradually expanding its influence and establishing the distinctive East Kimberley painting style. Other than Macha, McLeod and, for a short time in the mid 1980’s Chips MacInolty at Mimi Arts and Crafts in Katherine, the emerging art developed without assistance. In 1986, following a report written by Joel Smoker, the Kimberley Law and Culture Centre established Waringarri Aboriginal Art in Kununurra and Goolarabooloo Arts in Broome to help market the art of the region. While his public profile and reputation grew and his work gained wider commercial exposure through Waringarri’s exhibitions, Rover, and other artists, including George Mung Mung and Jack Britten, painted works of art from the mid 1980s for anyone who turned up in the community and could be persuaded to part with their money. This included workers and advisers to the nascent Argyle Diamond Mine, government bureaucrats, casual visitors and dealers.
Exhibitions organized by the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the National Gallery of Australia followed, and culminated in Rover’s selection as one of Australia’s two representatives at the Venice Biennale in 1990. These events, as well as his recognition on winning the John McCaughey prize, all increased his national and international prominence and generated the ever-growing number of agents and galleries who sought to represent him. In 1995 Rover and members of his extended family traveled with Kevin Kelly, the manager of Warringari Arts, back to his birthplace on the Canning Stock Route, inspiring an impressive body of work. Coo-ee Aboriginal Art ran two printmaking workshops in the community in the late 1990’s and Rover Thomas, along with other important male and female artists including Queenie McKenzie and Jack Britten created acetates, plaster engravings, and linocut prints that were editioned by Studio One in Canberra during the following year. At the time the unfunded art centre was run by Maxine Taylor, who had been appointed by the Warmun Council. Referred to as Warmun Traditional Artists while under her management, it acted as the art centre in the community until 1998 when Kevin Kelly, instigated its incorporation. With a proper constitution and financial accountability, the growing art community at Turkey Creek was finally serviced by an ‘official’ art centre almost two decades after the first paintings were produced by artists who had already achieved international recognition. In his final years Rover worked for all of these organizations and, after Maxine Taylor left Warmun, he often visited her and painted at her home in Wyndham, where she had first met him. At this stage of his life, he referred to Taylor fondly as Nyumun (auntie), just as he did to Macha, who he began working with 20 years earlier. Rover Thomas died on April 11, 1998 and was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Australia. The power of his work was reflected in the attention it commanded from the beginning of his 15-year career. Since first exhibiting in 1987 there has been a constant demand for his paintings, which are now represented in all major galleries in Australia. He is recognized as the major figure in contemporary Australian Aboriginal art. His legacy is a substantial body of significant paintings that provide an enduring, unique, insight into the numinous landscape of the Kimberley region and the human relationships and events that have become part of its history.
Profile References Newstead A. www.aiam100.com.au Newstead A. 2014, The Dealer is the Devil, Brandl & Schlesinger Caruana, W. 1993. Aboriginal Art. London. Thames and Hudson McCulloch, S. 1999. ‘Central and Western Desert’, Contemporary Aboriginal Art. Australia. Allen and Unwin Taylor, L. 1999. Painting the Land Story. Canberra. National Museum of Australia National Gallery of Australia, 1994, Rover Thomas Roads Cross; The Paintings of Rover Thomas. Canberra Carrigan B. 2003. Rover Thomas, I want To Paint. Australia. Holmes a Court Gallery, Perth Brodie, A. M (ed). . 1997. Stories: eleven aboriginal artists. Australia. Craftsman House
Prepaired by Adrian Newstead Cooee Art Consultancy 31 Lamrock Av Bondi Beach NSW 2036