Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri / Tingari (A15438)

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri was born east of Kiwirrkura in the late 1950s. He was the oldest of three brothers (Walala and Thomas Tjapaltjarri have also gone on to become successful artists) who came in from the Great Sandy Desert in 1984 along with several sisters and two old aunts and made contact for the first time with European society. Described as ‘The Lost Tribe’, he and his family created international headlines. Until this time Warlimpirrnga and his family lived the traditional and nomadic life of a hunter-gatherer society. Their intimate knowledge of the land, its flora and fauna and waterholes allowed them to survive, as their ancestors had for thousands of years. It is this sacred landscape with its significant sites that Warlimpirrnga so strikingly describes in his paintings.

Warlimpirrnga’s art almost exclusively depicts sacred Tingari images representing important men’s sites in his country. They include Marua (Marawa), his remote birthplace south west of Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay). It was here that in the Dreaming narrative, a large group of Tingari men were burning the countryside in search of a kangaroo. His works vibrate and mesmerize. The laminations in the painted surfaces visually warp and morph into the heated sand ridge and dune country that comprise the textured desert topography.

In 1987 Warlimpirrnga completed his first painting for Papunya Tula Artists and in 1988 his first eleven paintings were exhibited at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. This entire collection was purchased and donated to the National Gallery of Victoria. In September 2016, one of his paintings sold for 167,000 pounds (approx. AU$308,000) at Sotheby’s in London and in October 2016, Warlimpirrnga had a highly publicised sell out solo exhibition in the United States, at Salon 94 Gallery in New York.

Selected Collections
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• Art Gallery of NSW
• National Gallery, Canberra
• Kelton Foundation Collection, USA
• Macquarie Bank Collection, Sydney
• Musee des Arts Africians et Oceaniens, Paris

This painting depicts designs associated with the site of Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay). In mythological times a large group of Tingari Men travelled from Pulkurrlu which is on the eastern side of the lake to Wilkinkarra to perform ceremonies. Since events associated with the Tingari Cycle are of a secret nature no further detail was given. Generally, the Tingari are a group of mythical characters of the Dreaming who travelled over vast stretches of the country, performing rituals and creating and shaping particular sites. The Tingari Men were usually followed by Tingari Women and accompanied by novices and their travels and adventures are enshrined in a number of song cycles. These mythologies form part of the teachings of the post initiatory youths today as well as providing explanations for contemporary customs.