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Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula
Aboriginal painting on canvas board by Johnny Warangkula

1975

About the Item

Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula 1925 - 2001 Born : Mintjilpirri, Kintore, NT Language group : Pintupi/Warlpiri Community : Papunya, NT Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula was born in 1925 at Minjilpirri, close by is his major dreaming site Tjilkari. The son of mixed parents, his mother was of Luritja/ Warlpiri/Pintupi descent and his father Luritja/Warlpiri. His painting career began after a long turn at laboring. Interviewed in 1997, Johnny claimed; 'I come from the bush. We don't know money'. From partial obscurity, 'Johnny W', as he is affectionately known, became a figure to be reckoned with in the history of Australian art. Well before that time, however, the National Gallery of Australia had recognised his position in the scheme of Aboriginal art. In 1984, James Mollison, Director of the gallery claimed that their painting by Johnny W (the gallery's first purchase of a western desert painting) was 'the finest abstract art ever produced in this country'. Johnny rapidly developed a distinctive style of his own which came to be known as 'overdotting'. He uses several layers of dots to depict his dreamings, which consist of Water, Fire, Yam and Egret stories. There are also stories from Nyilppi and Nyalpilala which are his father's Dreamings. From the very beginning at Papunya, Johnny has always adhered to the idea that his paintings are stories - Aboriginal stories. He has never allowed any infiltration of European influence and rarely uses literal depictions of objects. Geoff Bardon advised the 'painting mob', of which Johnny was an important member, to paint in an Aboriginal way using Aboriginal signs and symbols that one might have found in body paint, tjuringa or sand paintings. Because of this 'purity' his works retain an integrity which places them amongst the most significant productions from the seminal art site that was Papunya. From 1999 Johnny painted with a new-found freedom, both in expression and in painting technique. Where he was once known for his delicate and soft white dotting, he attacked the canvas to tell the story with great gusto. He jabbed large dots on to the surface and produced roundels and symbols for weapons with great sweeps of his arm and the brush. Red, black, white. This board bearing the following inscription verso: A gift to the original owner from his brother, an aeronautical engineer who was employed in the early 1980s at the satellite tracking station near Alice Springs. These boards were acquired from a Telstra worker who had been previously employed in the Aboriginal communities in the 1970s
  • Creator:
    Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula (1925 - 2001, Aboriginal Australian)
  • Creation Year:
    1975
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 24.02 in (61 cm)Width: 17.72 in (45 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Miami, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU13615506462

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