Provenance
The Artist, created at Bathurst Island, Northern Territory
Tiwi Pima Art, Bathurst Island, Northern Territory
Private Collection, New South Wales
Aboriginal Art, Lawson~Menzies, Sydney, 30 May 2006, lot 268
The Martin Rae Collection, New York, acquired from the above
Tiwi Pima Art, Bathurst Island, Northern Territory
Private Collection, New South Wales
Aboriginal Art, Lawson~Menzies, Sydney, 30 May 2006, lot 268
The Martin Rae Collection, New York, acquired from the above
Description
This remarkable multi-tiered sculpture features the three ancestral creator beings central to Tiwi life and death, Purrukuparli, Bima (or Wai-ai) and Taparra. The face of each figure is distinguished by specific jilamara (designs) decipherable only to Tiwi people themselves. Kitty Kantilla moved to Paru as a teenager, where she observed the early period of figurative Tiwi carving in which some of the most revered of all Tiwi artists would emerge.