Provenance
The Artist, created at Milingimbi, East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory
Milingimbi Methodist Mission, Northern Territory
Collected by Joseph Von Sternberg, 1965, United States of America, acquired from the above
Sotheby’s, New York, 1984, lot 501
Private Collection, Queensland
Aboriginal Art, Sotheby’s Melbourne 25 July 2005, lot 216
The Martin Rae Collection, New York, acquired from the above
Milingimbi Methodist Mission, Northern Territory
Collected by Joseph Von Sternberg, 1965, United States of America, acquired from the above
Sotheby’s, New York, 1984, lot 501
Private Collection, Queensland
Aboriginal Art, Sotheby’s Melbourne 25 July 2005, lot 216
The Martin Rae Collection, New York, acquired from the above
Description
Created by an unknown Yolŋu artist in the mid 1960s, this elegant Mokuy figure is decorated with fine cross-hatching representing clan designs.
Carved at Milingimbi, this example displays a number of stylistic traits specific to carvers from this region. The flattened body shape and broad chest originated in earlier post-type figures inspired by Macassan grave posts observed at Milingimbi in the 1930s. So too the sharply angled jawline, which is believed to represent the pointed beards of Macassan men. While naturalistically shaped buttocks such as the ones on this figure are common in Mokuy carved at Yirrkala, it was rare for figures created at Milingimbi.