DOOWOON COUNTRY - TRANIE GORGE, 2004

Important Aboriginal Art
Melbourne
25 March 2009
37

RAMMEY RAMSEY

born c.1935
DOOWOON COUNTRY - TRANIE GORGE, 2004

natural earth pigments on linen

150.0 x 180.0 cm

inscribed verso: artist's name, title and Jirrawun Arts catalogue number RR6-2004-33

Estimate: 
$12,000 - 18,000
Sold for $19,200 (inc. BP) in Auction 7 - 25 March 2009, Melbourne
Provenance

Jirrawun Arts, Wyndham
William Mora Galleries, Melbourne (stamped verso)
Private collection, Melbourne

Exhibited

Rammey Ramsey, Deeper Than Paint On Canvas, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, 18 August – 11 September 2004

Catalogue text

Rammey Ramsey is a senior Gija man of Jungurra skin. He was born at Old Greenvale Station which is now part of Bow River Station.

Ramsey first started painting for Jirrawun Arts in 2000 and in that same year he came to prominence through inclusion in a number of group exhibitions with commercial galleries alongside contemporaries such as Paddy Bedford, Freddie Timms and Hector Jandany. Ramsey's work was also included in the 2006 exhibition, Jirrawun in the House: A Contemporary Experience from the East Kimberley, held at Parliament House, Canberra.

This painting is accompanied by the catalogue Rammey Ramsey, Deeper Than Paint on Canvas, from the exhibition of the same title which was held at William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, in 2004. Within it, Frances Kofod of Jirrawun Arts quotes the artist describing the painting thus:

'Here on one side is the road used by horses and here on the other side is the road used by motor cars. In the middle are lots of very sharp hills. The horse road goes from the north and the motor car road goes from the south. Can't come through the middle there, too rough. (In the middle) is a dreamtime water hole. If strangers go there the country owners must sprinkle water on their heads. Long ago people used to make camp and sleep there. They used to get goanna, bream and turtle. They used to kill them down there. They would roast them in the ground. That's the cloud. Look like a dust when the wind blows. I was mustering through there. Used to put a cattle in the yard. Oh too dusty. Come out full of dust'.