CANBERRA—A vivid Aboriginal painting recounting Australian indigenous creation myth has set a new world record mark for an Aboriginal artwork, topping A$1 million ($819,000) for the first time.
An Australian gallery last Wednesday paid US$864,262 for Emily Kame Kngwarreye's "Earth's Creation", which the late artist said told "the whole lot" about her life, her lands and the dreamtime myths of her people.
"She was an incredibly strong, powerful woman. She didn't have an ounce of self-consciousness, but just painted these incredibly spontaneous bursts of color," Adrian Newstead, of Sydney auction house Lawson-Menzies, told Reuters.
"Earth's Creation is undoubtedly a masterpiece and arguably Emily Kngwarreye's greatest painting," Newstead said, adding her work could be compared to a Monet, de Kooning or Pollack. Kngwarreye's medley of color depicts the desert seasons, Aboriginal people, native vegetation, and the epic adventures of her ancestral spirits.
The price was well above the previous record of $636,738 paid by the Australian National Gallery for Rover Thomas's painting "All That Big Rain Coming From The Top Side" in 2001.
Kngwarreye began painting at 80 after a decade making batik, and completed more than 4,000 works in the seven years before her death.
The 19 by 9 feet "Earth's Creation" consists of four panels and its swathes of color—reds, blues, yellows and greens—are a dramatic shift from the earth tones preferred by earlier Central Australian Aboriginal artists.
The 1995 painting had been tipped to sell for around $654,744 until the onset two months ago of a boom for Australian art in which a record $2.45 million was paid for a John Brack work.
Auctioneers have attributed the run of records to the mining-fueled prosperity filling Australian coffers and strong interest from European and American buyers. The sale capped a week of controversy in which Lawson-Menzies was forced to withdraw six Aboriginal ceremonial storyboards and a ceremonial "bullroarer," which makes a roaring vibration when spun, on the grounds they were secret and sacred objects.
"Many items of a secret, sacred nature currently in collections were acquired without the consent of the family. They and their descendants continue to suffer cultural damage through the non-repatriation of these objects," National Association for Visual Arts Executive Director Tamara Winikoff said.
Tim Jennings, who bought "Earth's Creation" and who knew Kngwarreye, said the work would be kept at his gallery in the outback city of Alice Springs.
The painting will also feature in a Kngwarreye retrospective planned for Tokyo and Osaka in 2008.
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