The artists
WARNING: Visitors should be aware that this website includes images and names of deceased people that may cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Anatjari (Yanyatjarri) Tjakamarra
Pintupi language group
about 1938–92
Born in remote southern Pintupi country, Tjakamarra was one of the last of his compatriots to leave his traditional lands. He was part of the original 1971 group of Papunya painters, and produced meticulous work of great precision. Tjakamarra moved to Tjukurla, Western Australia, in the early 1980s and was based there for most of the decade. In the late 1980s, after a break from painting, he resumed work for Papunya Tula Artists in Kiwirrkura. He had a solo exhibition in New York in 1989, from which the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased its first work by a Western Desert artist.
Freddy West Tjakamarra
Pintupi language group
about 1932–94
Born in the Gibson Desert around present-day Kiwirrkura, Tjakamarra was still a young man when his family was brought to Papunya by the Welfare Branch patrol in the 1960s. He began painting in the early years of the Papunya Tula movement, then resumed, following a short break, in the 1980s. Tjakamarra was the driving force behind the establishment of the Pintupi settlement at Kiwirrkura. His son Bobby West Tjupurrula is chairman of Kiwirrkura Community Council and also the current chairman of Papunya Tula Artists.
John Tjakamarra
Pintupi language group
about 1937–2002
Born and raised west of Tjukurla, in Western Australia, Tjakamarra travelled widely in his youth before encountering Europeans. He came to Papunya in 1964 and started painting with the Pintupi group on the veranda of Geoffrey Bardon's flat. In late 1972 he became one of the early shareholders of Papunya Tula Artists. Almost his entire output consists of Tingarri paintings, which reveal the Dreaming journeys and ceremonies of the Pintupi ancestors.
Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra
Ngaliya/Warlpiri language groups
born 1932
A former stockman, Tjakamarra (whose name 'Long Jack' comes from his unusually tall stature) was one of the founding members of Papunya Tula Artists and its chairman in 1975 and again in the early 1990s. During his childhood, Tjakamarra and his family lived off their traditional lands, before settling at Haasts Bluff when Tjakamarra was in his teens. In 1984 he was ordained as a Lutheran pastor and in the same year won the Alice Springs Caltex Art Award. He is the last of the founding group of Papunya artists still to be painting.
Mick Wallankarri Tjakamarra
Ngaliya language group
about 1910–96
Born west of Karinyarra (Central Mount Wedge), an area for which he was later 'boss' (senior custodian), Tjakamarra worked as a stockman at Glen Helen and Narwietooma stations in his younger days. He and his countryman Bert Tjakamarra were the traditional owners of the Papunya Honey Ant Dreaming site and authorised the use of its designs in the Papunya School mural, which set the painting movement in motion in 1971. Mick's great love of painting and his deep knowledge of Aboriginal law had a profound influence on Papunya painting for more than two decades.
Anatjari (Yanyatjarri) Tjampitjinpa
Megaw, Flinders University Art Museum Collection.
Pintupi language group
about 1927–99
Tjampitjinpa was born in the country east of Jupiter Well in Western Australia, where he lived until he and his three wives and their children came to Papunya in 1964. In the early 1970s he spent time at Balgo, north-west of present-day Kintore, returning to Papunya in the mid-1970s to paint for Papunya Tula Artists. During the next two decades he moved first to Kintore, then Kiwirrkura and consistently painted Tingarri themes in the line-and-circle grid style typical of Pintupi men's art.
Tingarri Men and Initiates at Marabindinya (Marrapintinya) 1981
Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa
Warlpiri language group
born about 1946
Born west of Mount Allan, near present-day Yuendumu, Tjampitjinpa is the younger 'brother' of Kaapa Tjampitjinpa and a cousin of Clifford Possum, Tim Leura and Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, all Papunya Tula artists. He worked as a stockman before settling in Papunya to paint for Papunya Tula Artists in the mid-1970s. Tjampitjinpa travelled to Melbourne in 1977 for a Papunya Tula exhibition at the Realities Gallery. In 1981 he visited Sydney with Paddy Carroll Tjungurrayi to construct the first ground painting to be seen outside of Central Australia, in the grounds of the SH Erwin Gallery on Observatory Hill.
Kaapa Tjampitjinpa
Anmatyerr/Warlpiri/Arrernte language groups
about 1926–89
Tjampitjinpa, his younger 'brother' Dinny Nolan and cousins Tim Leura, Clifford Possum and Billy Stockman Tjampitjinpa, all grew up on Napperby Station, north-west of Alice Springs, where Tjampitjinpa was born and later initiated. He worked as a stockman before moving to Papunya in the early 1960s. A forceful and highly intelligent man, Tjampitjinpa was a key figure in establishing the painting movement, becoming Papunya Tula Artists' first chairman. He was principal artist for the collaborative painting of the famous mural at Papunya School. Tjampitjinpa won first prize in the 1971 Alice Springs Caltex Art Award, the earliest public
recognition of a Papunya painting.
Ray Inkamala Tjampitjinpa
Pintupi/Luritja language groups
about 1920–89
Born at Ilpili in the Ehrenberg Range, Tjampitjinpa grew up in the bush. His first contact with white people was seeing planes overhead as a small boy. His parents died of hunger and thirst in the desert and he was adopted into an extended family, who went to Hermannsburg in the 1930s. Tjampitjinpa worked as a stockman before moving to Papunya and later to several of its outstations including Kungayunti. Tjampitjinpa painted intermittently from early 1976, having become involved in the painting movement through his half-brother Walter Tjampitjinpa, who was one of the founders of Papunya Tula Artists.
Toby Brown Tjampitjinpa
Anmatyerr language group
about 1920–86
Tjampitjinpa was a member of the Aboriginal Arts Board and an artist for Papunya Tula Artists in the mid-1970s. From 1975 or earlier he lived in town camps on the fringes of Alice Springs and was an important figure in campaigns to improve camp amenities. Most of his paintings for Papunya Tula date from 1976 to the late 1970s. He travelled to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in the 1970s as a representative of the Aboriginal Arts Board and Papunya Tula Artists.
Paddy Tjangala
Ngaliya language group
about 1920–97
Tjangala was born in the desert near the important Fire Dreaming site of Warlukurlangu. He was a respected lawman and renowned in settler society for his skill as a maker of wooden artefacts. He was also one of the founding members of Papunya Tula Artists, though he rarely painted on canvas. He often decorated his wood carvings and in the early 1980s, after he and his family had settled at Mount Liebig, taught his three daughters to paint. They were among the first young women to paint for Papunya Tula Artists.
Uta Uta (Wuta Wuta) Tjangala
Pintupi language group
about 1926–90
Tjangala was conceived at the site of Ngurrapalangu in the Kiwirrkura area of the Gibson Desert, and through this was connected to the Yina (Old Man) Dreaming story that runs from Ngurrapalangu and through Yumari. He was one of the original Papunya group of artists and an inspirational figure in the art movement, painting continuously until the late 1980s. In the late 1970s he travelled extensively through the fringes of the Western Desert and together with other Pintupi leaders developed a plan for returning to their traditional lands. He finally settled in Muyin, an outstation west of Kintore, in the early 1980s.
Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri
Anmatyerr language group
born about 1927
Born at Ilpitirri near Mount Denison, north-west of Yuendumu, Tjapaltjarri survived the 1928 Coniston Massacre in which the rest of his family were killed. He was raised by his aunt, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri's mother, and worked as a stockman and later as a cook in the Papunya communal kitchen. He was a founder of the Papunya painting movement, an Aboriginal Arts Board member (1975–79) and a chairman of Papunya Tula Artists (1976–77). In 1977 he attended the opening of the World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture in Nigeria, which featured an exhibition of Papunya Tula art. He continued to paint until the late 1990s and now lives in Alice Springs.
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
Anmatyerr language group
about 1932–2002
Born in a creekbed on Napperby Station, Tjapaltjarri didn't attend school and worked from late boyhood as a stockman. He began carving in his late teens and had a reputation as a skilled craftsman when the painting movement began at Papunya in 1971. The BBC's Desert Dreamers documentary, in which he was filmed painting Warlugulong (1976), gave the Papunya painters their first widespread exposure. Tjapaltjarri's skill and inventiveness, and his enormous enthusiasm for life, helped to make him the most celebrated Aboriginal artist of his generation. He was chairman of Papunya Tula Artists from 1980 to 1983 and again in the late 1980s. He became an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2002.
David Corby Tjapaltjarri
Ngaliya/Warlpiri language groups
1940–80
Tjapaltjarri was born at Tjunti, north-west of Papunya in the Treuer Range. He worked as a stockman before joining the early group of artists at Papunya. One of the youngest of the group, he was encouraged to join by his older brother Charlie Egalie Tjapaltjarri and was influenced in his work by his father-in-law Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula. Tjapaltjarri travelled with Aboriginal Arts Board exhibitions to New Zealand and Nigeria and, in 1979, was artist-in-residence with Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula at Flinders University, Adelaide. He drowned in a flooded creek on his way back to Papunya shortly after being elected chairman of Papunya Tula Artists.
George (Dr George) Tjapaltjarri
Pintupi language group
born about 1940
Born south-west of Jupiter Well in the Gibson Desert, Tjapaltjarri was the younger brother of Papunya Tula artist Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri. He painted for Papunya Tula Artists in the mid to late 1970s. Joining the Pintupi resettlement in their traditional lands at Kintore, he was one of several ngangkari (traditional healers) attached to the Kintore medical clinic (hence 'Dr George'). He returned to painting in the late 1980s, first for Papunya Tula and then for private dealers as an independent artist, achieving recognition for his bold, scaled-up designs.
Mick Namarari (Namararri) Tjapaltjarri
Pintupi language group
about 1927–98
Born at Marnpi in Pintupi country south-east of present-day Kintore, Tjapaltjarri and his sister were brought up by relatives after their parents were killed by a revenge party. Later they went to Hermannsburg, where Tjapaltjarri attended the mission school before working as a stockman at stations across Central Australia. In 1971 he was one of several Papunya councillors who became founding members of Papunya Tula Artists. In the 1990s he was recognised as one of the painting movement's elder statesmen, and in 1994 was awarded the Australia Council's prestigious Red Ochre Award.
Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri
Anmatyerr language group
about 1934–84
Tjapaltjarri was born in Napperby Creek, north-west of Alice Springs, and grew up around Napperby Station on his traditional Anmatyerr/Arrernte country. Like his 'brothers' Clifford Possum and Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, he was a skilled woodcarver. From Narwietooma Station, where he worked as a stockman, he moved to Papunya with his wife Daisy Leura Nakamarra and their young family to work on the construction program for the new Papunya settlement. One of the original members of the Papunya movement, he applied techniques such as wash-overs, derived from his earlier experience with watercolours, to obtain unusual atmospheric effects in his work.
Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri
Pintupi language group
about 1940–87
Tjapaltjarri was born at Patjarr in the Clutterbuck Hills, far to the south-west of Kintore. He was one of the original Papunya Tula shareholders and painted a small number of works in the early days of the art movement. In the 1970s he lived mostly at Docker River and painted only occasionally when he visited Papunya. He was usually listed on the company's books as a carver rather than a painter during this period. A talented and original artist, he later moved to Kintore and painted more regularly for Papunya Tula.
Johnny Scobie Tjapanangka
Pintupi language group
about 1938–2000
Born in the Kintore Range, Tjapanangka grew up in the bush and later came to Lajamanu (Hooker Creek) with his parents. Though he was one of Papunya Tula's original shareholders, he didn't paint until 1975. He was the first chairman of the Warlungurru (Kintore) Council after the Pintupi moved back to their traditional lands in 1981 and was deeply involved in the success of the new community. He resumed painting in this period, often enlisting his wife, Narpula Scobie Napurrula, sister of Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, to paint the dotted backgrounds.
Billy Nolan Tjapangarti
Pintupi language group
about 1939–2003
Born south of present-day Kintore towards Docker River, Tjapangarti grew up in the bush and came to Haasts Bluff in one of the early Pintupi eastward migrations. He observed the painting group at West Camp, Papunya, before taking up painting himself in 1976. He usually painted Tingarri stories of his country. From the early 1980s Tjapangarti and his second wife, artist Kayi Kayi Nampitjinpa, lived at Kintore, painting regularly for Papunya Tula Artists.
Charlie Tjapangarti
Pintupi language group
born 1949
Born north-west of Jupiter Well, in Western Australia, Tjapangarti came to Papunya in 1964 and began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1977, in the classic line-and-circle grid style of Pintupi men's art of the period. In 1981 he accompanied Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri and Andrew Crocker to the United States for an exhibition entitled Mr Sandman Bring Me a Dream. Nearly 20 years later he was one of four Papunya Tula artists brought to Sydney to construct a traditional ground painting for Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius at the Art Gallery of New South Wales during the 2000 Olympics. He had his first solo exhibition in 2003, in Perth, Western Australia.
Tim Payungka Tjapangarti
Pintupi language group
about 1935–2000
Tjapangarti was born at the claypan site of Parayirpilynga, near Lake Mackay. In 1958 he brought his family on foot to Haasts Bluff with Uta Uta (Wuta Wuta) Tjangala, his father-in-law. Tjapangarti was a fiercely handsome man with a superb physique — 'a sort of Apollo', according to film-maker Ian Dunlop, and 'a classic Aboriginal warrior', according to Geoffrey Bardon. He was part of the original group of painters at Papunya and used his language skills to help Bardon with Pintupi translation. Tjapangarti had a great love of ceremony and song, and used his command of the Warlpiri language to encourage sharing of ritual knowledge.
Charlie Tarawa (Tjaruru) Tjungurrayi
Pintupi language group
about 1925–99
Born west of the Kintore Range, near present-day Kintore, Tjungurrayi's family were among the first Pintupi people to migrate east, in the 1930s, to Hermannsburg. Tjungurrayi was well-known for his camels, taking supplies to his countrymen still living on their traditional lands. His long acquaintance with Europeans made him a spokesman for the Pintupi group, mediating their interactions with the various Papunya Tula managers. He was one of the founders of Papunya Tula Artists and, with the support of Andrew Crocker, the first to have a retrospective, which commenced its tour at Orange Regional Gallery, New South Wales, in 1987.
George Tjungurrayi
Pintupi language group
born about 1943
Born near Kiwirrkura in the Gibson Desert, Tjungurrayi came to Papunya via Mount Doreen Station and Yuendumu, to the north. He began painting for Papunya Tula Artists at West Camp, Papunya, in 1976, and continued intermittently during the 1970s and more regularly after settling in Kintore in the early 1980s with his wife and five children. In the late 1990s he switched from painting classic Tingarri themes to his trademark topographical linework for his first solo exhibitions in Australia's eastern state capitals, earning immediate acclaim.
Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi
Pintupi language group
1920–87
Born at Walukuritji, south of Lake MacDonald, Tjungurrayi was about 30 years old when he came to Haasts Bluff in the late 1940s. He spoke almost no English and was one of the last senior Pintupi men to join the Papunya painting group in the early 1970s. A ngangkari (traditional healer), he was renowned for his hunting skills, ceremonial knowledge and his spirited dancing. A kindly father to his children, he also raised his stepdaughter Linda (Tjungkaya) Syddick Napaltjarri and the orphaned Benny (Pinny) Tjapaltjarri, both of whom he taught to paint and who became artists in their own right.
Timmy Jugadai Tjungurrayi
Luritja/Kukatja language groups
about 1920–89
Tjungurrayi's country was Yaripilang, north-west of Papunya, and Winparrku, south-west of Haasts Bluff. He was actively involved in the Haasts Bluff community and was head stockman at the cattle station there from the 1950s. He was a friend of Limpi Tjapangarti, who also lived at Haasts Bluff and was an associate of the original group of Papunya Tula painters. Tjungurrayi painted occasionally for Papunya Tula Artists in the mid-1970s.
Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi
Pintupi language group
about 1924–98
Born south-west of Lake MacDonald, Tjungurrayi was about 40 years old when he and his family walked to Papunya from their remote homelands in 1963. He began painting in 1971 and was one of the first painters to use the grid style of concentric circles and connecting lines, representing travel, used by most of the Pintupi painters by the end of the 1970s. By 1998 he was one of the last exponents of that style at Papunya Tula Artists. Tjungurrayi's widow, Ningura Napurrula, is now one of the leading names in desert art.
Yumpuluru (Yumpuluru) Tjungurrayi
Pintupi language group
about 1930–98
As a boy, Tjungurrayi travelled with his family over the country between Jupiter Well and Kiwirrkura, in the Gibson Desert, before making contact with Europeans. His close friendship with Anatjari (Yanyatjarri) Tjampitjinpa dated from this time. Tjungurrayi came to Papunya in 1964 and was one of the original Papunya Tula shareholders. In 1981 he joined the Pintupi in their move back to their traditional lands at Kintore, later settling in Kiwirrkura. He painted a few small boards in the 1970s, often distinctive for their quirky designs.
Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula
Pintupi language group
about 1918–2001
Born in the bush north-west of Ilpili, in the Ehrenberg Range, Tjupurrula came to Hermannsburg Mission with his family in the 1930s, where he worked as a labourer. He later moved to Papunya and joined the painting group where he rapidly developed his distinctive 'painterly' style of over-dotting. An energetic and expressive man and painter, Tjupurrula loved to regale audiences in Pintupi with the stories of his paintings.
Mala and the Bad Uncles at Tjikarri (I)
Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula
Pintupi language group
about 1943–2001
Tjupurrula was born just east of Haasts Bluff, where his family was camping, after coming in from their traditional country around the Kintore Range. He worked as a stockman at Haasts Bluff cattle station and later as a labourer at Papunya, building houses for the new settlement. One of the youngest of the original Papunya Tula shareholders, his name first appears in the company's books as a painter in 1973. In 1979 Tjupurrula and fellow artist David Corby Tjapaltjarri were artists-in-residence at Flinders University, Adelaide. He was Papunya Tula Artists' longest-serving chairman (1985–95).
Dreaming at Kamparrarrpa (Kampurarrpa)
Daisy Leura Nakamarra
Anmatyerr language group
born about 1936
Born on Narwietooma Station, north-west of Alice Springs, Nakamarra was taught to paint by her husband Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, one of the founders of the painting movement at Papunya. The couple had moved to Papunya with their six children when the community building program commenced. She joined Papunya Tula Artists in the early 1980s and, with her husband's instruction, became one of the first of the company's female artists to achieve recognition. Nakamarra is a senior law woman and a strong believer in respecting the imagery relating to ceremony by keeping it out of her paintings. Her artwork invariably portrays bush tucker themes.
Pansy Napangarti
Warlpiri language group
born about 1945
Napangarti was born at Haasts Bluff soon after her family arrived at the ration depot there in the early 1940s. From 1960 she lived in Papunya, where she observed older artists such as Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula and Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, and began to develop her own style. During the 1970s she produced artefacts for Papunya Tula Artists under the name 'Panyma'. Because the company was unable to support women painters at that time, she worked independently as a painter until 1983. When finally taken on as a Papunya Tula artist, Napangarti rapidly emerged as one of its foremost painters, recognised for her refined and
innovative use of colour.
