JANTERRJI - DOLLY HOLE, 2004

Part 2: Important Aboriginal Art
Melbourne
27 November 2013
138

PADDY NYUNKUNY BEDFORD

(c.1922 - 2007)
JANTERRJI - DOLLY HOLE, 2004

ochres and pigment with synthetic binder on composition board

80.0 x 100.0 cm

signed 'PB' verso
inscribed verso: Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts cat. PB CB 3 2004.23

Estimate: 
$35,000 - 55,000
Sold for $50,400 (inc. BP) in Auction 32 - 27 November 2013, Melbourne
Provenance

Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts Corporation, Kununurra
The Estate of Paddy Bedford
Bonhams, Sydney, 21 Nov 2011, lot 18
Private collection, Melbourne

Exhibited

Paddy Bedford: Crossing Frontiers, Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art (AAMU), Utrecht, The Netherlands, 8 October 2009 – 11 April 2010

Literature

Storer, R., Paddy Bedford, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, p. 161 (illus.)
Michael, L. (ed.), Paddy Bedford, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, p. 161 (illus.)
Petitjean, G., et al., Paddy Bedford: Crossing Frontiers, Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art (AAMU), Utrecht, The Netherlands, and Snoeck Editions, Heule, Belgium, 2009, p. 88 (illus.)

Catalogue text

According to anthropologist Dr Frances Kofod, 'Janterrji is a place where the artist's family have a small outstation. It is near a water-hole known by Europeans as Dolly Hole. It is an important place where dreamtime women conducted their special ceremonies.'1

The subject matter of Bedford's paintings is drawn from the artist's two main and very different sources of knowledge and experience. The dramatic Kimberley landscape around Bedford Downs and the historical events that took place there and intersect with the ever present Ngarranggarni or Dreaming, the parallel time dimension where the landscape, animals and plants were created and in which the laws determining behaviour and tradition were established. His paintings also present a dichotomy of viewing, powerful and bold forms, reminiscent of physical features of the Kimberley, are surrounded by expansive delicate washes of muted colour, presenting a contrast between powerful physicality and great sensitivity. Simple in their composition as they are complex in the underlying stories they tell, such as the Emu, Bush Turkey and Cockatoo Dreamings of his family.

1. Michael, L. (ed.), Paddy Bedford, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydey, 2006, p. 133