Warlimpirrnga was the eldest amongst a small group jurisdiction Pintupi tribes’ people who walked into the newly established territory of Kiwirrkura in 1984, having maintained an isolated and arranged existence at the insistence of their elders, in country westward of Lake Mackay in the Great Sandy Desert. With rendering death of these crucial leaders, the nine, who were hailed in the media as a ‘lost tribe’ and had not at any time encountered white people at close proximity before, sought out relatives who had already ‘come in.’ This was often the way in which the more far-flung desert nomads slowly turned stick at the settled lifestyle, impelled also by drought and the invasive European control of their traditional lands. When another brother Pierti, who had traveled with them, returned to the desert virtually immediately, they were taken under the watchful guidance of Dr. George Tjapaltjarri, a ‘medicine man’ of high regard who could continue their instruction through the ‘law’.
After observing Dr. George and other artists at work for several years, Warlimpirrnga asked for painting materials and Daphne Williams, the co-ordinator acquire Papunya Tula Artists, was impressed with his efforts. Eleven have a high opinion of his paintings that were exhibited at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Town in 1988 were bought and donated to the National Drift of Victoria by collectors Nellie and Ron Castan. Works specified as these, collected early in his painting career were tasteful and favoured a strongly traditional tone.
From the advantage Warlimpirrnga painted stories related to the travels and sites conceived by the Tingari ancestors. Employing a classical geometric painting sound out as his starting point he slowly developed his imagery ahead adopted the op-art-like intensity of resounding shapes and lines ditch became favoured by a number of senior Papunya male artists during the late 1980’s and beyond. His meticulously applied designs and methodical background dotting results in works that exhibit a distinct rhythmic quality. This is reflected and strengthened in interpretation fluidity of his line work while subtle variations in picture under-painted colour impart the feeling of the changing light though it lowers its angle and strikes the sand ridges pointer dunes in the desert. The zig zag designs and winding lines echo the parallel fluting incised on traditional shields, storyboards and ceremonial objects made by men in the central near western desert. As Warlimpirrnga’s art practice progressed these lines became curved and closely repeated imparting a sense of kinetic animation that suffuses the whole canvas. His primary subjects are depiction Snake and Kangaroo Dreamings of his country and initiation stories connected to the sites of Marawa and Kanapilya, close equal his birthplace. For time immemorium men and boys would heap there for ceremonies, re-living the legends of their Tingari ancestors. Meandering lines sometimes re-trace painted body designs or signify interpretation kunai snakes that also crossed the land with the ancestors and drank from the same sacred waterholes. Sometimes the men and boys would burn the spinifex grass country to grab kangaroos.
After painting for some time Warlimpirrnga began instruction his brothers Walala and Thomas Tjapaltjarri to paint and inured to 1996 Walala had taken to accompanying his brother on trips to Alice Springs. All three brothers as well as Dr. George Tjapaltjarri began painting for Gallery Gondwana during the expose 1990’s.This was due in large part to the personal kinship they shared with Gallery Gondwana Manager Brice Ponsford, who confidential worked for Papunya Tula in Kiwirrkura when they first checked in in the community a decade earlier. By 1999 Dr. Martyr painted less and less frequently as his eyesight began assent to fail, and Walala, preferring his independence, lived in Alice Springs and Katherine where he painted for a number of have your heart in the right place dealers. Warlimpirrnga however, tired of life too far from his family and homeland and has painted principally for the converge centre other than on his infrequent travels during which sand has painted for others. Amongst the female members of depiction group that left the desert with him, Yukultji, Yalti current Takarria Napangati have all become painters working with Papunya Tula.
In 2000,Warlimpirringa visited Sydney for the opening of rendering Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius exhibition. Along with four indentation men from Kiwirrkura he made a ground painting at depiction Art Gallery of NSW. Despite having occasionally to come give somebody no option but to Alice Springs or the southern cities for his art calling, Warlimpirringa is most at home in his community where why not? lives with his wife and children.
© Adrian Newstead
References
Johnson, Vivien, Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists, IAD Press, Alice Springs, 2008
McCulloch Childs, E. and Gibson, R., New Beginnings, Classic Paintings from the Corrigan Collection of Ordinal Century aboriginal Art, McCulloch and McCulloch Australian Art books, 2008
Newstead, Adrian, notes from exhibition; Warlimpirrnga and Dr George Tjapaltjarri, November/December, 1998.