작품 상세

ROBIN NGANJMIRRA 1951 - 1991 Rainbow Serpents of the Dreaming, c.1983 ochre on bark 137 x 80 cm PROVENANCE The Artist, painted in Gunbalanya region, Western Arnhem Land, NT Oenpelli Arts (Church Mission Society), NT Private collection, NSW Robin Nganjmirra was a senior Kunwinjku artist from Gunbalanya (formerly Oenpelli), Western Arnhem Land, and a respected custodian of Djalama clan knowledge. Born in 1951, he was a key figure in the development of the region's bark-painting tradition, celebrated for his mastery of both ceremonial iconography and ancestral narratives. This painting depicts the Rainbow Serpent (Ngalyod), one of the most powerful and widespread ancestral beings in Aboriginal Australia. Rendered with natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark, the work exemplifies Nganjmirra's precision and compositional authority. Its rhythmic cross-hatching and carefully balanced forms convey both the physical presence of the serpent and its spiritual potency, while circles, lines, and organic motifs reference waterholes, sacred sites, and ancestral pathways. @ ROBIN NGANJMIRRA / Copyright Agency, 2025