Fine Art, Lawsons Sydney, 17 October 2024

Supplied, 16 October 2024

A leader and diplomat of the Warumungu people, Nat Warano, locally known as Tracker Nat on account of his services as a police tracker, played a pivotal role in politics and art during 1930s -50s. His artistic practice was integral to his role as a leader in the Warumungu community, creating drawings and carvings of coolamons, spearthrowers and shields and often featured painted scenes of men dancing in ceremonial dress or hunting.  His art functioned as gifts or trade in Tennant Creek, NT, where the act of gifting was rooted in the tradition of ngijinkirri among the Warumungu people and intended to establish a sense of obligation for the recipient towards the giver. Thematically, Warano would often depict scenes of Warumungu life but in this woomera (Lot 551 ) we see Warano play with iconography of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, perhaps to symbolise not only a nation moving forward but also the moving forward of his community.

Among the recognisable catalogue of artists in the Lawsons October Fine Art auction, leading the sale are leading female artists, Margaret Olley, Ethel Carrick Fox and Stella Bowen, including an intimate collection of iconic images by Max Dupain and notable works by John Kelly, Aida Tomescu and John Beard. The main highlight of the sale, however, is a rare woomera (above) painted by Tracker Nat Warano, a Warumungu carver whose works produced during the 1930s-50s has gained increasing recognition beyond academic and institutional circles.

Following a brief period under the tutelage of Magaret Preston and following the death of her mother, Stella Bowen travelled to London in 1914 and enrolled at the Westminster School of Art and established herself within a circle of artists and writers such as TS Eliot, Ezra Pound and WB Yeats. The self-portrait titled ‘Me’ by Stella Bowen (Lot 503 ), is an early example from her early years in London and of what would become Bowen’s preferred genre - portraiture.

The intimate, light-hearted and animated images of children playing is a common theme among Ethel Carrick Fox works and are popular among collectors whether a Parisan park or on the beaches of Manly and Balmoral. Children Playing in the Park (Lot 501 ), Paris is a working study, to the reverse is inscribed the name ‘Madame C McPherson’ and a Paris address. 

Snowdrops and Violets, 1962 (Lot 502 ) by Margaret Olley is from a productive period in Olley’s career. In 1961 exhibition at Macquire Galleries was well received, followed by notable prizes between 1962 and 1965 including the Perth Helena Rubinstein Portrait Award, and Bendigo Art prize.

The Gap by John Beard won the Wynne Prize in 2006 (Lot 512 ), following this accolade Beard won the Archibald prize in 2007 of artist Janet Laurence. Beard’s unique representation of landscape by way of texture, materials and light, achieves a sense of sublimity and emotion akin to C19th German romanticism. The sale also features another work by Beard, Head (Lot 535 ), a key theme within his practice of portraiture.  

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