작품 상세

YUWUN YUWUN MARRUWARR c.1928 - 1979 The Legendary Emu, c.1968 ochre on bark 95 x 61 cm; 109.5 x 76 cm (perspex box frame) inscribed verso: N131; label verso: Sotheby's 259 PROVENANCE The Artist, painted in Western Arnhem Land, NT Rothmans of Pall Mall, Canada The McIntosh Gallery, Ontario, Canada Sotheby's, Aboriginal Art, Sydney, 29/07/2003, Lot No. 259 Private collection, Vic EXHIBITED The McIntosh Gallery, University of Ontario Canada, 1974 Born around 1928 in western Arnhem Land, Yuwun Yuwun Marruwarr was a senior Kunwinjku artist of the Marrirn clan and Kamar- rang subsection. Based at Oenpelli (Gunbalanya), he belonged to the generation whose refined bark paintings defined the classical period of Arnhem Land art in the 1960s and 1970s. This work depicts the Emu, a major totemic species of Marruwarr's Country and a central figure in ancestral narratives across the western Arnhem Land floodplains. Painted in natural ochres on stringybark, the composition demonstrates his mastery of fine rarrking articulating the bird's internal structure and spiritual energy. The work reflects Marruwarr's ceremonial authority. His paintings stand alongside those of Yirawala and other masters of the Oenpelli school, forming a vital part of the visual and cultural heritage of the Kunwinjku people.