Warlimpirrnga tjapaltjarri biography samples

When Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri arrived in the settlement at Kiwirrkura (a remote community near the Pollock Hills in Western Australia) in 1984, having led his small family group out of the desert for the last time, he not only made international headlines as one of “the last uncontacted nomadic tribesmen of the world”, but was subsequently catapulted into a vastly different way of life. His Pintupi relatives had almost all been brought out of the Gibson Desert decades earlier by the infamous ‘Pintubi Patrols’, settling in Ikuntji and Papunya. The extended time Warlimpirrnga spent living a traditional way of life on remote lands west of Lake MacKay and his precocious attainment of the role of maparntjarra (healer) commanded instant respect amongst his relatives in Kiwirrkura and further afield. Notwithstanding these auspicious beginnings, Warlimpirrnga’s experience in joining the community and seeking out art materials to paint his tjukurrpa, were no different to that of his re

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Patrick Tjungurrayi
Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri

Since 1999 Scott Livesey Galleries has mounted an annual exhibition of work from Aboriginal communities, accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. As a tenth anniversary, the gallery director, Scott Livesey has instead chosen the work of two senior Kiwirrkura men: Patrick Tjungurrayi (c.1940) and Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri (c.1959), both Papunya Tula Artists. The exhibition fryst vatten a rare chance to see the outstanding work from two great figures of the Western Desert tradition.

Patrick and Warlimpirrnga are artists and shareholders of Papunya Tula Artists, both live in the tiny community of Kiwirrkura, 700 kilometres west of Alice Springs in Western Australia. As well as being highly respected as artists, both have an extraordinary knowledge of the nation. Within their community they are highly regarded for their immense experience of the desert geography. The works in the exhibition “transcribe in paint the power and mystery of Pin

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Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri: Powerful Presence in Person and Paint

PART : PAINTING

In his role as the senior male of the group, Warlimpirrnga became something of a conduit between the family and outsiders. There was undoubtedly an expectation that he would negotiate his family's path into their new surrounds. He arrived in Kiwirrkura an initiated man, in full command of desert Law and ritual. The circumstances of how this came to be are mysterious and therefore it was assumed he was in possession of special capabilities. Perhaps unfairly, Warlimpirrnga came to personify the renewed spirit of self-determination that had emerged at Kiwirrkura, a role he, initially at least, appeared happy to assume. Undoubtedly his dramatic entry in the public sphere and his seemingly infinite appeal to outsiders created a level of interest the community of Kiwirrkura was unaccustomed to. In 1999, during a brief stay in Alice Springs, I accompanied Warlimpirrnga and his brother Tamayinya to a loc