Bonhams has set a new auction record for 19th century Victorian Aboriginal artist and Wurundjeri elder William Barak (1818-1903) during its June 7 sale in Sydney. Fresh to the market and previously unseen, “Ceremony,” 1897, a 42cm by 54cm work on paper, shattered its presale estimate of $180,000-$250,000 to reach a final price of $512,400 following a heated bidding battle.Bonhams’ chairman Mark Fraser said that the work had been in the possession of the same Sydney family for more than a century and was previously unknown. “Family lore is that Barak exchanged the painting with their forebear Frank Piggott Webb, who was a master glassmaker, and it had been treasured by the family ever since,” he added.According to the catalogue entry, William Barak is noted for images that relate to actual events or specific ceremonies, as opposed to the generic scenes of ceremony, hunting, and warfare that drawings commissioned of Aboriginal artists by late 19th century settlers typically depict. In the case of Barak’s “Ceremony,” the work appears to portray “an initiation ceremony in three distinct registers.”
↧