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Large rare 19th century Australian Aboriginal rain forest…
Sale Title:
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Sydney
Date:
22-May-2022
Lot No.
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Description:
Large rare 19th century Australian Aboriginal rain forest shield, c.1870, north Queensland, of curved oval form, evidence of painted decoration in tones of black, brown and ochre, length 90 cm. Provenance: Arthur Beau Palmer gallery, 2006, then private collection, Queensland note: Rainforest designs present a wistful, ethereal and subtle patternation of colour which makes them unique amongst Aboriginal Art. The haunting beauty and the sheer scale of this particular shield evokes a power which belies the shy lives lead by its creators, the Negritoid (small people) Kung?ga: ndyi and Yidindyi language groups of the north Queensland Rainforest around Cardwell coast and the Atherton table land. Ian Fairweather, the Queensland painter who lived & worked on Bribie Island, once remarked to me as a young Art student ethnographer that he considered them to be the most sublime & sophisticated of all abstracts (personal communication.). Based on McConnel and his own field work, Palmer interprets the design depicted on this shield as a flying fox (fruit bat Pteropus conspicillatus & hafted grooved pounding stone). Ursula McConnel, in her 1934 ground breaking article 'Inspiration & design in Aboriginal Art' States that the culture Hero Buleru is ritually associated with all Totemic clan motifs on Rainforest shields & therefore the power of the Buleru dwells in the design: 'Thus it seems likely that the inspiration for the Artists' choice of designs on the shields' was originally drawn not merely from an intimacy with the common objects of every-day life but from a belief in the Buleru who were responsible for the creation of these objects in the beginning and who impregnated them with their spirit, thus making them amenable to human needs?. The pigments were applied to the shield using Lawyer-Cane with chewed bristle brush ends. Traditionally the method for painting Rainforest shields was for two men to work together painting from opposite ends of the shield.
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified