Investment Aboriginal Art Billy Stockman 1990 ex Joels

Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri is one of the first generation of artists. He too was involved in the first mural at Papunya and went on to being one of the earliest foremost spokesmen and promoters of the Western Desert Painting Movement. He is an ex Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists.  Perhaps unfairly criticised for a fairly set iconographic subject style, Billy has a unique and direct style of abstract expressionism that the other painters did not dare duplicate. I speak of  him in the present tense as he is still alive and can be visited in the Old Timers in Alice Springs though he has not painted for quite some time. His paint starved dotting style is unique, he uses a brush to lift the paint from the centre of his dots giving the impression of snake skin and scales. This is a direct link to his Dreaming, the carpet snake at Mount Wedge that travelled to this place through the heart of Anmatyerre country. In this composition, two serpents with  eggs  are shown travelling to their permanent waterhole. The background is a mosaic of colour blocks that represent the surrounding vegetation, the bright green is an unusual colour for aboriginal art but is one of Billy's trademarks.

Measures 140 X 99 cm and is box framed. Ex Leonard Joel Auctions Melbourne lot 223, December 2007.