There were 65 lots, many exciting, culturally important works, yet only 23 sold at the Sotheby’s Tim Klingender auction in New York on Tuesday. Just two were sold in six-figure amounts – a 1993, pre-Colourist Emily Kngwarreye at US$215,900 and a 3.3 metre haze of black and white dots from Angelina Pwerle, a classic ‘Bush Plum’ at US$127,000.

Unsold were three more Kngwarreyes – two really significant and personal works with a Rodney Gooch provenance – ‘Intekw’ and ‘Kam’, both early works from 1990. And both had deep catalogue notes by experts, Anne Marie Brody and Wally Caruana:
“These two early paintings Untitled (Intekw) 1990, and Untitled (Kam) 1990, are among the most intimate pictures that Emily created. Spontaneous and reflective, these small panels express Kngwarrey’s abiding themes and deep identity as a ceremonial leader and custodian of Alhalkere (her Country) and its stories. The sparse details of how these works came to be painted also offer a rare perspective on Kngwarrey’s agency and practice in this early period”.

For Emily had in fact taken boards intended for a wood-block print project suggested by Gooch – one of them already incised – which she had no desire to take part in. For she had discovered canvas and acrylic paint! Brody and Caruana continue: “The importance of intekw to Kngwarreye is highly visible in her imagery in key batiks from the late eighties, notably in Emu Dreaming, her contribution to (the famous first exhibition) A Picture Story. In this batik, intekw is located close to the body paint motif for Alhalkere. But perhaps this affirmation of identity is visually at its strongest in Kngwarrey’s first (ever) painting, Emu Woman, where her portrayal of intekw branching reads like a spine holding everything in its place.

“The way the plant is drawn showing the structure of the stem along with the detail of the pod and emerging tufts of the fan flower might remind a western viewer of a classic botanical drawing. Such naturalism is extremely rare in Kngwarrey’s works but has an immediate parallel in the detail she has used to represent the seeds in Untitled (Kam). Given the cultural importance and totemic significance of the emu to the origin story of Alhalkere, this image of intekw, by association, is akin to a self-portrait representing another aspect of Kngwarrey’s totemic identity”.

How could buyers resist such personal associations with Utopia’s greatest artist?

Amazingly, they also resisted 13 early Papunya Tula Artists works by such maestri as Uta Uta Jangala, Clifford Possum, Timmy Payunka, Johnny Warangkula, Mick Namarari and an absolutely top-rate 1981 work by Tim Leura taking the ancestral Great Hunter on a detailed mythological journey. Turkey Tolson’s third-ever Straightening Spears at Ilyingaunggau – a fresh-as-morning-dew breakthrough work in minimalist Pintupi story-telling – was also unloved. Four-figure barks may have sold – but names like Yirawala, Jimmy Mijaw Mijaw and Narritjin Maymuru were not well enough known to join them despite the Madayin exhibition of current and historic barks from Yirrkala at NY’s Asia Centre. And that should have helped the comparatively contemporary Nongirrnga Marawili bark, 2 metres tall and striking enough to come from the late Tim Klingender’s personal collection. But it’s unsold.

Where taste was on show was in some strange areas! A wonderful ‘Jimmy Kerinaiua’ wooden sculpture of Tapara – The Moon Man did sell for more than US$10,000 – though Jimmy’s name fails to appear in Jennifer Isaac’s definitive book on Tiwi art alongside eleven other Kerinauias. And the surname is spelt Kerinauia! A Jimmy also fails to appear in the combined Tiwi art centres’ book, ‘Good Craftsmen and Tiwi Art’ , which lists artists working between 1941 and 1996.

An 80 year old Alma Webou, painting her lost desert home at coastal Bidyadanga is rarely appreciated enough – but sold at what I suspect is a record price for US$22,860. Another under-appreciated, very traditional artist, Tiger Palpatja from the APY Lands painted his complex Wanampi Tjukurpa aged 91, selling for almost US$45,000. And Elizabeth Marks Nakamurra – widow of the unloved Mick Namarari – sold just as fruitfully with an op-art PTA work. A solid Rover Thomas sold for less.

But an unusual mauve Sally Gabori certainly appealed at an over-estimate US$81,000. And Richard Bell – quite out of place in this company – hit US$53,000. Mind you, it was a dot painting despite his disdain for desert artists, with a hidden message, “Where is the Outrage?”.

What a sad end to the Klingender reign; for I fear that a 35% sales rate won’t attract the hard-nosed folk at Sotheby’s to continue the annual series of Aboriginal Art auctions in New York. Is there a Trump factor, even though I don’t think he’s put tariffs on art yet? Were estimates over-priced? Perhaps it’s yet another of America’s phases – leaping aboard First Nations art after the 1988 Dreaming show, then pulling back in the 2000s? Did it simply miss Tim’s magic touch and unrivalled connections?