OAKLAND, CA.- Clars Auction Gallery will offer the monumental work by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (Australian, 1932-2002) titled Honey Ants Dreaming. This painting carries an estimate of $100,000 to $200,000 (USD) and will be offered as part of their Important Modern and Contemporary Fine Art Auction on Sunday, May 18, 2014. Tjapaltjarri is one of Australia’s most collected as well as renowned 20th century Aboriginal artists.

In February 2014, Clars offered Possum Dreaming by Tjapaltjarri which achieved the price of $130,900 (USD), the highest price achieved at auction for the artist in the United States and sixth highest price overall (globally).

Regarding the May offering of Honey Ants Dreaming, Rick Unruh, Vice President and Director of Fine Art at Clars stated, “This is another important example of the artist’s richly colorful, as well as visually powerful, acrylic ‘dot’ paintings. This may very well be one of his best works to come up for auction.” Tjapaltjarri was inspired by the ancient Aboriginal mythology known as the Dreaming, or Dreamtime. Born in the Northern Territory of Australia, Clifford Possum developed a vast knowledge of the Dreaming trails that crisscrossed the Western Desert and it became the basis of his subject matter (or ‘stories’) for his paintings. The ‘story’ depicted is a visual interpretation through color, patterns and space of a particular animal’s trails (in this case Honey Ants) in relation to the earth and the sun to denote specific times of the day. The result is both visually spectacular, as well as mesmerizing.

This painting and many others important works will be offered at Clars Auction Gallery on Sunday, May 18th as part of their May 17-18-19, 2014 Fine Art, Jewelry and Decoratives Auction. The sales will begin promptly at 9:30am. Previews for this sale will be held Friday, May 16th from 1pm to 6pm and 9am each auction day and by appointment. A complete catalog will be available online one week prior to the sale.