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Additional Information

A favourite bush food, this derives from a real fruit tree, the Conkerberry, which MNJ remembers near Mt Singleton where he used to climb as a child. The design has been reinterpreted as a linear sand-painting pattern. Occasionally MNJ layers this pattern over existing designs, such as in this painting which depicts the icon for a meeting place. Concentric circles usually represent a specific site such as waterholes and campsites—locations of physical and/or spiritual significance. The ‘site’ is the starting point for many stories. Ground paintings for ceremonial ‘sites’ are created in the sand, linking people and places with stories and songs.

About the Artist

MICHAEL NELSON JAGAMARA

Born: 1946 Pikilyi (Vaughn Springs) NT
Language: Warlpiri & Luritja
Region: Papunya, Western Desert NT

Michael Nelson began painting some 35 years ago in Papunya, Central Australia, in the classic dot and circle tradition of desert sand painting. Much of his work focuses on stories and imagery from the Mt Singleton area near Yuendumu, and tells of traditional Dreaming stories including Possum, Kangaroo, Emu and Lightning.

Michael Nelson was acknowledged nationally and internationally in the mid 1980s through numerous public art commissions including the Sydney Opera House mural, Forecourt Mosaic Design for The New Parliament House in Canberra; and significant art awards including the 1984 Telstra National Aboriginal Art Award. During the late 1990s, he reinvented his approach to painting with a more expressionistic style. Jagamara continues to make the salient point that although his choice of colours, materials and appearance of works are continually being reformatted, his stories have never changed.

Michael Nelson’s significant contribution to Aboriginal Art was recognised in 2008, when he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of New South Wales. His works are held in numerous private, corporate and most public collections in Australia including the National Gallery of Australia and the Nationally Museum of Australia; and both Public and Private International collections.

In September 2016 at the Sotheby’s London auction , Michael Nelson Jagamara’s iconic work, Five Stories, 1984, achieved a record for the highest price for any living Aboriginal artist, when the work sold for AUD$687,877 (GBP401,000), more than doubling the pre-sale estimate of AUD$256,500-$342,000 (GBP150,000-200,000). The work, offered to auction from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, is considered to be the most significant piece of contemporary Aboriginal Art, and is said to be the most published and exhibited work by any Indigenous Australian artist.