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Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, artist
Australian - Aboriginal, b. 1925
Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula (Australian, Loritja, b. 1925) Children's story (water dreaming for two children), 1972
Pressboard, tempera pigment
18 x 15 7/8 (45.7 x 40.3 cm)
The Gantner Myer Aboriginal Art Collection 2002.70.2

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: Gantner Myer Collection, Melbourne. "This is one of the first paintings the art teacher Geoff Bardon elicited from senior Pintupi and Luritja men at Papunya." (Isaacs, Jennifer. Spirit Country: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Franicsco, 1999: p. 36). PUBLICATIONS: 2009 FAM Bulletin entry (unabridged) - "Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula was one of the first Papunya Tula men to adopt the dotting and overdotting painting technique, used in part to capture the energy of movement and in part to obscure sacred knowledge. (1) The sophisticated language of Papunya Tula painting is rooted in a collective effort to sustain traditions while adapting to the global economy. By incorporating traditional iconography and designs into Western-style paintings destined for the international art market, senior men encoded and asserted their culture on canvas. Some of the first paintings they produced contained sacred knowledge that should not have been revealed to outsiders. Realizing the consequences of publicity, artists painted over sensitive elements in previous paintings and began to paint children's stories, which were open to all members of the community. (2) Tjupurrula painted this water dreaming abiding by that general rule. On the left, there are two young children watching a ritual elder dance surrounded by ceremonial objects. Dense patterns of dots, circles, sinuous bands, and parallel lines fill the canvas. Tjupurrula's innovative and intuitive compositions often run out of the frame, “creating an irresolution of meaning and form…,” though a consistent and powerful aesthetic. (3) The white tracks describe watercourses, the concentric circles recall waterholes or soaks, and the smaller lines denote running water. (4) At a June 1998 art auction (and again in June 2000), another of Tjupurrula's water dreaming paintings set a world record for Aboriginal art sales." FOOTNOTES (1) Patrick Corbally Stourton, Songlines and Dreamings: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Painting, the First Quarter-century of Papunya Tula (London: Lund Humphries Publishers, 1996), 27. (2) Jennifer Isaacs, Spirit Country: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Franicsco, 1999), 36. (3) Geoffrey Bardon, Papunya Tula: Art of the Western Desert, (Ringwood, Victoria: McPhee Gribble, 1991), 53. (4) Isaacs, Spirit Country, 36. 1999 - Isaacs, Jennifer. Spirit Country: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Franicsco, p. 36-39.

Related Keywords
for dreaming story Children's 1925 b Loritja Tjupurrula Warangkula Johnny 36 p 1999 Franicsco Museums Arts Fine Francisco San Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Country Spirit Jennifer Isaacs Papunya men Pintupi senior elicited Bardon Geoff teacher art paintings first one This Melbourne Myer Gantner people Luritja Oceania Desert Western Australia pigment tempera Pressboard water running denote smaller soaks waterholes recall concentric watercourses describe tracks white canvas fill lines parallel bands sinuous circles dots patterns Dense objects ceremonial by surrounded dance elder ritual watching children young two left technique painting overdotting Dotting Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula Australian - Ab 0813200310100072 A361864 2002.70.2 AOA