Description

Year: 1998

Medium: Acrylic on Linen

Image Size: 1270mm x 1260mm

Documentation: CoA (Certificate of Authenticity) – Plus 4 Working Photos

Catalogue No: WDAAJW34

Provenance: Western Desert Aboriginal Art

AIAM Overall Ranking: 10

AIAM Market Ranking: 58 (2018)

Top 10 Artworks Sold at Auction by Johnny Warangkula TJUPURRULA

1

Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa 1972

dimensions: 75 x 80 cm medium: Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Lot: 70  26/06/2000 $486,500

2

Spearing of Matingpilangu 1974

dimensions: 173 x 203 cm medium: Synthetic polymer paint on linen

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Sydney Lot: 184  29/07/2003 $342,250

3

Water and Bush Tucker Story

dimensions: 65.5 x 46 cm medium: Synthetic polymer paint on composition board

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Sydney Lot: 99  20/10/2008 $228,000

4

Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa 1972

dimensions: 75 x 80 cm medium: Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Lot: 15  30/06/1997 $206,000

5

Water Dreaming with Rain and Lightning 1972

dimensions: 50 x 60 cm medium: Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Lot: 72  09/07/2001 $150,750

6

Water and Tucker

dimensions: 76 x 91 cm medium: Synthetic polymer paint on composition board

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Lot: 78  24/11/2009 $150,000

7

Yala Tjukurpa (Potato Dreaming) 1972

dimensions: 45 x 34.5 cm medium: Synthetic polymer paint on composition board

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Lot: 80  31/07/2006 $132,000

8

Water and Bush Tucker 1972

dimensions: 57 x 56.5 cm medium: Synthetic polymer paint on composition board

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Sydney Lot: 110  29/07/2003 $118,000

9

Water Ceremony 1972

dimensions: 64 x 46 cm medium: Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Lot: 46  09/07/2001 $99,000

10

Water Dreaming 1977

dimensions: 62 x 45 cm medium: Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board

auction: Sotheby’s Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Lot: 75  09/07/2001 $81,750

Market Analysis

Johnny Warangkula was a powerful presence throughout the formative period of the Desert painting movement and created his most emblematic and important works early in his career. All but one of his top 30 results are for works that were painted in the 1970s and of those more than two thirds were painted in the Bardon period of 1971 to 1972. Of the 252 works offered for sale at auction only 58% have sold, evidence that his paintings were uneven in quality especially as his career advanced. Of those paintings that have achieved between his 20th and 100th highest prices only about a dozen were painted during the 1980s or later. The artist’s poor clearance rate at auction has been largely due to the false impression amongst collectors that works produced during the 1980s and 1990s are worth more than actual market value. There is no doubt that the large number of late career works he produced did not serve his reputation well. The sole late career work to enter the top fifty, Pangkalangku Men 2001, sold for $75,000 at Lawson~Menzies in March 2009 (Lot 142). During a year in which six works sold of ten offered, this sale was the only real anomaly. Late career works by Warangkula are considered a less sure investment relative to the solid blue-chip early works that carry Papunya or Stuart Art Centre provenance. Warangkula’s brilliant top-selling work Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa 1972, measuring just 75 x 80 cm doubled in value over three years, originally selling for $206,000 and then reselling in Sotheby’s June 2000 auction for $418,500 (Lot 70). Yet only eight of his works have sold for more than $100,000 and all but exceptional examples of his early boards have slightly decreased in value during the past ten years. Amongst these, Wild Tomato Dreaming 1972 sold for $41,400 at Sotheby’s June 2000 auction (Lot 109), showing a drop in $2,300 from its earlier result at Sotheby’s in 1998 (Lot 223) and Water Dreaming 1971 incurred a loss for its owner of $8,050 when re-sold at Sotheby’s in June 2000 for $17,250 (Lot 108) after originally being purchased from Sotheby’s in 1996 (Lot 8). Another slightly larger board measuring 91 x 76 cm titled Water and Tucker 1972 was re-offered by Sotheby’s in July 2005 after having failed to sell in an earlier auction. Sotheby’s halved the estimate and it still failed to sell. This is evident even amongst those works in the lower price range.

A late 1970s work Kalipinypa 1978 failed to reach its lower reserve of $6,000 in Lawson~Menzies October 2003 sale after realising $6,325 at Deutscher~Menzies in June 1999 (Lot 161). The majority of Warangkula’s works are heavily weighted in the $10,000 to $25,000 price range. 110 works have sold for less than this price range over the years and only 37 above. His highest price for a work on canvas was $342,250, which was paid for a 173 x 203 cm work Spearing of Matingpilangu 1974 at Sotheby’s in July 2003 (Lot 184). Warangkula’s works first appeared at auction in 1993 and by 2000, 48 of 60 works had sold making for an 80% clearance rate. Between 2000 and 2012 however his success rate dropped to as low as 38% (2008) resulting in his overall career standing at 58%. 2012 saw 11 of the 20 works on offer sold at an average price of $10,852, and in 2013 only 3 of 10 works sold. Sotheby’s have been the powerhouse of Warangkula’s sales and his champion having offered 118 paintings of the 252 that have appeared for sale. Lawson~Menzies is a distant second with 31 works. Overall, collectors should be aware that Johnny Warangkula’s early works painted during the period that Bardon was in Papunya between 1971 and 1972 are far and away the most highly sought after and splendid examples of his work. While he continued to produce intensely detailed, finely wrought paintings for a few more years, over time they became less intricate, more gestural and finally more and more messy and muddy in colour as his sight and dexterity became impaired. Because of the high prices his early work fetched on the secondary market during the mid to late 1990’s many independent traders supplied him with rolls of canvas, only to end up with unsaleable works in all but a few exceptional cases. That Warangkula earned far more from these than he ever did from his finest works is the ultimate irony in a career that has left a lasting legacy on both counts.