Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri 1957
Lives in Australia. Works in Australia.
Represented by:
SmithDavidson Gallery
Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri was born around 1958 east of Kiwirkurra in Western Australia. In 1984 the international headlines were filled with the ’discovery’ of the last group of Australian Aborigines who until the late 20th century had managed to retain their traditional lifestyle in complete isolation. These so-called ’last of the nomads’ or ‘lost tribe’ of nine Pintupi walked in from the bush west of Lake Owen that year and for the first time came into contact with western civilization. Six of these nine Aborigines became artists. From these six, Warlimpirrnga was the first who started painting after carefully observing other artists from the community at Kiwirkurra. Within three years, Warlimpirrnga transformed from a nomad with a traditional lifestyle into one of the leading artists from the Papunya Tula Artists corporation.
In 1988, he held his first exhibition in Melbourne. Warlimpirrnga paints primarily in two styles, he makes extensive use of geometric shapes to depict the stories of the Tingari (ancestors), or he uses lines made up of carefully placed dots in his dreamings that depict holy Lake Mackay, a site of which he is one of the custodians. Warlimpirrnga uses the same dot technique as other Pintupi artists like his brothers, Walala and Thomas, but also George Tjungurrayi.
In 1988, he held his first exhibition in Melbourne. Warlimpirrnga paints primarily in two styles, he makes extensive use of geometric shapes to depict the stories of the Tingari (ancestors), or he uses lines made up of carefully placed dots in his dreamings that depict holy Lake Mackay, a site of which he is one of the custodians. Warlimpirrnga uses the same dot technique as other Pintupi artists like his brothers, Walala and Thomas, but also George Tjungurrayi.
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Artworks by Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri
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The three brothers Tjapaltjarri (Thomas, Warlimpirrnga, Walala)
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Selected Collections
Kelton Foundation Collection, California, USA
Macquarie Bank Collection, Sydney, Australia
Musée du Quai Branly (former Musée des Arts Africains et Oceaniens), Paris, France Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
National Gallery in Canberra, Canberra, Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Collection of Steve Martin & Anne Stringfield, New York, USA John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami, USA,
Collection of Beyoncé Knowles & Jay Z,
and many private collections world wide
Selected literature
Hetti Perkins, Art + Soul, Miegunyah Press, 2011, p. 76
Paul Toohey, ’The Last Nomads’, The Bulletin, 4 May 2004, p. 28–35
Joan Winter, Native Title Business, Contemporary Indigenous Art
Keeira Press, Queensland, 2002
P. Corbally Stourton, Songlines and dreamings: contemporary Australian aboriginal painting, Lund Humphries, 1996, p. 177
Vivian Johnson, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales, 1994
F. Dussart, La Peinture des Aborigines D'Australie, Editions Parentheses, Marseille, 1993;
S. Crossman and J-P. Barou, L'ete Australien a Montpellier: 100 Chefs d'Oevre de la Peinture Australienne, Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France, 1990;
J. Ryan, Mythscapes Aboriginal Art of the Desert from the National Gallery of Victoria, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1989. 016:
Singing Up Country | Kudditji Kngwarreye, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
Kelton Foundation Collection, California, USA
Macquarie Bank Collection, Sydney, Australia
Musée du Quai Branly (former Musée des Arts Africains et Oceaniens), Paris, France Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
National Gallery in Canberra, Canberra, Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Collection of Steve Martin & Anne Stringfield, New York, USA John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami, USA,
Collection of Beyoncé Knowles & Jay Z,
and many private collections world wide
Selected literature
Hetti Perkins, Art + Soul, Miegunyah Press, 2011, p. 76
Paul Toohey, ’The Last Nomads’, The Bulletin, 4 May 2004, p. 28–35
Joan Winter, Native Title Business, Contemporary Indigenous Art
Keeira Press, Queensland, 2002
P. Corbally Stourton, Songlines and dreamings: contemporary Australian aboriginal painting, Lund Humphries, 1996, p. 177
Vivian Johnson, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales, 1994
F. Dussart, La Peinture des Aborigines D'Australie, Editions Parentheses, Marseille, 1993;
S. Crossman and J-P. Barou, L'ete Australien a Montpellier: 100 Chefs d'Oevre de la Peinture Australienne, Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France, 1990;
J. Ryan, Mythscapes Aboriginal Art of the Desert from the National Gallery of Victoria, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1989. 016:
Singing Up Country | Kudditji Kngwarreye, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
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