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CLIFFORD POSSUM TJAPALTJARRI CIRCA 1932-2002 UNTITLED (CEREMONY) C. 1971 39.5 by 92 cm Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board Provenance: Painted at Papunya circa 1971 Private collection, Alice Springs Cf. The first two known paintings on board by the artist are: Emu Corroboree Man, 1972, and Love Story, 1972, illustrated in Johnson, V., Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2003, pp.61 and 65 respectively. See also, Honey Ant Ceremony, 1972, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, illustrated in Johnson 2003:67. One of the first three paintings on board by the artist. The details of the figures, the footprints and the hatching, and the overall proto-symmetry of the composition all confirm that the work is by Clifford Possum. Characteristically, several of the paintings made at the very early stages of the Papunya movement, in 1971 and 1972, contained figurative images of ceremony and sacred objects. As the artists became more aware of the public audience for their art, they adopted the iconographic style of traditional painting in the desert. The painting is divided into two parts: in the upper section the subjects are depicted naturalistically in profile view; in the lower two sections the artist has adopted a planar view including the conventional depiction of roundels surrounded by U-shapes indicating people, and the lines or tracks that join the three sites. The upper section shows a ritual in progress: one decorated figure wearing a headdress is seen dancing. His footprints cover the central section of the work; these indicate where he walked - the entire footprint is depicted - and where he hopped or ran on the balls of his feet, as seen in the line of footprints with no heel. The two seated figures are shown placing sacred boards into a ground sculpture on which stands a feather-topped pole, surrounded by a ground painting of concentric circles. To either side are three caterpillars, seemingly rising from the ground, and an array of shields, boomerangs, stone knives and stone axes. The lower section is defined by a horizontal line containing three sites, adjacent to which is a line of ants and sacred boards. The two boards on the right depict possum tracks.