Geoffrey Bardon came to Papunya in the early 1970s and encouraged the Aboriginal people to put their dreaming stories on canvas, stories which had previously been depicted ephemerally on the ground. Encouraged by his brother Tim, Clifford Possum, who had already begun teaching woodcarving at the settlement, joined Bardons painting group, which later became the Papunya Tula Artists Company. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was an Australian artist born in 1932. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri led a ground-breaking career and was amongst the vanguard of Indigenous Australian artists to be recognised by the international art world. I use paint and canvas that's not from us, from European people. The painting exceeded in size and narrative complexity anything hitherto produced by the Papunya painters. When Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri joined this group of 'dot and circle' painters early in 1972 he immediately distinguished himself as one of its most talented members and went on to create some of the largest and most complex paintings ever produced". In 1988, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London organised a retrospective it was Tjapaltjarris first solo exhibition and the first time an Australian Aboriginal artist had been honoured in this way by the international art world. The charcoal grey areas indicate the burnt-out country, and the white dots represent ash. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri started his working life at diverse stations across Central Australia, where he acquired his impressive linguistic repertoire of six Western Desert languages, including his native Anmatyerr, and a little bit English. (age70in2002), Basil P. Bressler (48portraits supported). He is one of Australia's most distinguished and best-selling painters of the late twentieth century. When Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri joined this group of 'dot and circle' painters early in 1972 he immediately distinguished himself as one of its most talented members[2] and went on to create some of the largest and most complex paintings ever produced. Indian Artist Australian Art Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (circa 1930-2002) Untitled (Possum Ceremony) Estimate: AU$ 120,000 - 180,000 78,000 - 120,000 US$ 130,000 - 190,000 Aboriginal Dot Painting Aboriginal Artists Indigenous Australian Art Indigenous Art Gallery Website Outsider Art Native Art His first opportunity to paint came when one of Albert Namatjira's sons gave him acrylic paints and the master began his work. Cattle rustler, rum runner, brilliant painter, By continuing to browse Obelisk you agree to our Cookie Policy. Additional documents supplied by Central Australian . Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (c. 19322002) was a founding member of the artists cooperative established at Papunya in the early 1970s and one of the most renowned practitioners within the Western Desert art movement. After accepting a commission in 1985 to paint a mural for the Araluen Art Centre, Possum moved his family to Alice Springs, the first Papunya Tula artist to do so. Copyright for artwork images on this website belongs to the artists or their estates. Clifford Possum led a groundbreaking career and was amongst the vanguard of Indigenous Australian artists to be He was of the Peltharr skin. His determination to express and pass on his ancestral stories to the next generation became the means for forging his distinct artistic vision. Video excerpt from the ABC documentary 'The Exhibitionists' on First Nations Australian female artist Karla Dickens, Wiradjuri people. Although married and father to Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi and Michelle Possum Nungurrayi, Clifford Possum dedicated his time to creating extraordinary three-dimensional artworks widening the circles of knowledge relating to Anmatyerre history, Aboriginal and national history. While mastering the dot painting techniques used by other Papunya Tula artists, he began drawing on other sources for inspiration. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (1932 - 21 June 2002) was an Australian painter, considered one of the most collected and renowned Australian Aboriginal artists. WARLUGULONG 1977. The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. Police claimed that the Aborigines had killed a local dingo hunter. Born in a creek bed on Napperby cattle station, Clifford Possum worked from late boyhood as a stockman. [8] The work and the price it achieved at auction in 2007 are cited as evidence of both the importance of Clifford Possum as an artist, and of the maturation and growth of the Australian Indigenous art market. It was given extensive media coverage and had record attendances. In the 1940's, Clifford and his family re-located to Jay Creek, where he became a stockman, working at several stations throughout the area. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (1932 21 June 2002) was an Australian painter, considered to be one of the most collected and renowned Australian Aboriginal artists. Master weaver Yvonne Koolmatrie is passionate about preserving the near lost art of Ngarrindjeri weaving. from Lawsons on February 4, 0123 12:00 PM AEDT. That Dreaming carry on. His paintings are held in galleries and collections in Australia and elsewhere, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia, the Kelton Foundation and the Royal Collection. Artworks are displayed solely to aid potential purchasers in making their selection. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Aboriginal Australian (Anmatyerre), 1932-2002 Perentie Dreaming, c. 1986 Acrylic on canvas Signed in graphite to verso, unframed. His mother, Long Rose Nangala and father, Tjatjiti Tjungurrayi, were members of the Anmatyerre tribal group living on ancestral lands near Napperby cattle station. Primary Marketplace ( 2022 ): Australia Clifford Possum TJAPALTJARRI is an artist born in Australia c.1932 and deceased in 2002. Because everybody there all ready waiting. His working life began at an early age on the Hamilton Downs cattle stationthe very industry that had driven his family from the land. The artwork he created, called Warlugulong, was the largest the Papunya artists had ever attempted, and combined nine events and locations of the Dreamingthe mythic cosmology of the Aboriginal cultures. As an artist who frequently incorporates celestial-like symbols and motifs in his work, Johnson was drawn to the meditative and intricate quality of dotting and sought permission from the Papunya artists to employ it. This heightened his appreciation of the idea that a painting might function as a map, and as a unified embodiment of place, identity and spirituality. Clifford Possum emerged as one of the leaders in this school of painting, which has come to be called the Western Desert Art Movement. He rapidly distinguished himself as one of the companys most accomplished and inventive artists, an exponent of striking, multi-layered and meticulously rendered visual effects. Clifford possum tjapaltjarri warlugulong 2007 Background Contemporary Indigenous Australian art originated with the Indigenous men of Papunya, located around 240 kilometres (150 mi) northwest of Alice Springs in Australia's Western Desert, who began painting in 1971. By the 1970's he was one of the most accomplished carvers in Central Australia. In 1980 he began visiting the Papunya settlement and came to know Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, Michael Nelson Jagamara and others, who invited him to paint with them. According to the government, Aborigines were not ready to live as white Australians and had to be re-educated. He will be sadly missed by those who worked with and knew him well, as well as art collectors and dealers around the world.He worked extensively as a stockman on the cattle stations in and around his traditional country. View our artist exchanges Research 10 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri prices and auction results in Art. Over 60 major paintings, all with detailed annotations and spanning more than two decades of his output, are reproduced in this volume. List of all 145 artworks by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. [18] Described as "epic"[19] and "sprawling",[20] Genocchio said of it that is "a work of real national significance [and] one of the most important 20th-century Australian paintings". It makes accessible the development of a master painter of the Anmatyerre tribe, one . In the early 1950s the artist went to live at a recently opened lodge that catered to tourists drawn to the area by the landscapes of the Hermannsburg Mission watercolourists. Contact with Albrecht had an ongoing impact on Possum and his family. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri 'Warlugulong' Yuuma, Gurruburri. In 1976 a BBC documentary crew traveled deep into Australias Northern Territory to watch Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and his brother Tim Leura paint a masterpiece. He began carving during the same period and had established a reputation as a craftsman before becoming one of the first men to take up painting at Papunya, a settlement established 240 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs in the 1960s. In 1999, Possum became embroiled in a public scandal after he initiated a police investigation into a Sydney exhibition of his work and identified most of the paintings on show as fake. [6] The work, in fact, sold for $2.4 million;[7][8] the following day, it was revealed that the National Gallery of Australia had been the buyer. While Possum never forgot the Christian teachings at Hermannsburg, he never fully embraced the religion, unlike his older brother who studied at Hermannsburg and was ordained as a Lutheran pastor. Submit artwork for exhibitions A founding member of Papunya Tula Artists cooperative, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was one of the most important artists of the movement and among its most innovative practitioners. He was selected by the Possum family to be a pall bearer at Clifford's funeral, a great honour he very much valued." Mr Knight featured in the media many times over the years - from when he bred an unusual foal that was shot from the Hume Freeway to winning a bet to ride a donkey over the Princess Bridge in the Melbourne. His older brother Cassidy Possum Tjapaltjarri was a traditionalist who barely gone outside of the Yuelamu community and was one of most respected elder till his passing in 2006, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was the most famous of the contemporary artists who lived around Papunya, in the Northern Territory's Western Desert area, when the acrylic painting style (known popularly as "dot art") was initiated. Possum received no formal education but knew six Aboriginal languages and a little English. When it held an exhibition of his work in 2004, the Art Gallery of New South Wales described his artistic background: He was an expert wood-carver and took up painting long before the emergence of the Papunya Tula School in the early 1970s. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was a significant Aboriginal artist. An Anmatyerr man, he was born on Napperby Station near Alice Springs and started his working life in the 1940s as a stockman. His obituaries, which appeared in newspapers around the world, generally referred to him as Clifford Possum and gave his age as about 70. Free entry, Find out what you need to know before visiting, Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia. His obituaries, which appeared in newspapers around the world, generally referred to him as Clifford Possum and gave his age as about 70. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri In Ocula Magazine Ocula News Swiss Collector Buys Kelton Collection of Australian Indigenous Art Melbourne, 3 December 2020 In a deal worth millions, Bruno Raschle acquired more than 250 works in the California-based collection. Contemporary Indigenous Australian art is a national movement of international significance with work by Indigenous artists, including paintings by those from the Western Desert, achieving widespread critical acclaim. Standing out among an exceptional cohort, these four selected artists deployed their inherited iconography while exploring the new poetic possibilities offered by paint on canvas. Warlugulong is a 1977 acrylic on canvas painting by Indigenous Australian artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. [9][10] The artist's images of this period are visually complex, and contain a wide variety of patterns, unified by strong background motifs and structure. Photo: Professor JVS Megaw, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Possum_Tjapaltjarri. http://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/clifford-possum-tjapaltjarri/. The work, in fact, sold for $2.4 million; the following day, it was revealed that the National Gallery of Australia had been the buyer. Clifford Possum accurately described this period as the killing times. Within this framework, he depicted the land geographically. Collections include the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and the New South Wales Art Gallery in Sydney. [3], Contemporary Indigenous Australian art originated with the Indigenous men of Papunya, located around 240 kilometres (150mi) northwest of Alice Springs in Australia's Western Desert, who began painting in 1971. Njega i njegove sunarodnjake je 1960. australijska vlada preselila iz Zapadne pustinje u Alice Springs kako bi se lake asimilirali u zapadnu kulturu. He is considered as one of the most famous Central Western Desert artist to dominate the Aboriginal art scene. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri is arguably the most famous male Central Western Desert artist, who from 1971 until his death in 2002 dominated the Aboriginal art scene. International Committee of the Fourth International. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present. One of the founding fathers of the Papunya Tula Art Movement, this Anmatyerre artist remains the most celebrated artist in the history of Aboriginal Art and was the first Papunya Tula artist to be given a Retrospective, which began in October . #aboriginal art #australian painting #aboriginal art #aboriginal painting #papunya #western desert #painting #australian art #indigenous australian art #art aborigne #Kunst der . stated in. SYDNEY, Australia, June 29 Clifford Possum, who painted some of the masterpieces of Australian aboriginal art, died on June 21 in Alice Springs in the Australian desert, an ancient landscape. [17], Warlugulong (1977) is acclaimed as a landmark Indigenous painting; a great work by one of the country's foremost artists. His career as an artist began in the 1950's when he carved snakes and goannas. Indigenous Australian Art Artists Possum Tjapaltjarri's Contemporaries Tim Johnson, Tim Johnson Warlugulong 1976 and several paintings by Aboriginal artists was exhibited at the inaugural Australian Perspecta at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1981, the first time Aborigines had been included in a general survey of Australian contemporary work. Warlugulong was one of the high points in the two brothers artistic collaboration over the years, and also the first in Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarris renowned series of monumental canvases of the late 1970s, which have been likened to vast encyclo-pedic maps of his Tjukurrpa country. His final days were spent at the Hetty Perkins Nursing Home in Alice Springs, where he passed away surrounded by close family and friends. Lungkata was the Bluetongue Lizard Man, an ancestral figure responsible for creating bushfire. How much is your Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri worth? Commissioned with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2002 He was of the Peltharr skin. Forty years ago, Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Tim Leura, Clifford Possum and Johnny Warangula were central to the constitution of contemporary desert art at Papunya. During the '70s and '80s, he and his family lived at Papunya, Napperby Station, M'bunghara outstation near Glen Helen, and then Alice Springs. Possum was of the Anmatyerre culture-linguistic group from around Alherramp (Laramba) community. Tjapaltjarri was chairperson of Papunya Tula Artists during the early 1980s. He has had a book published dedicated to him and his paintings, 'The Art of Clifford Possum Japaltjarri', by Vivien Johnson. In between working as a stockman, Possum had begun carving wood. While his year of birth is considered to be approximately correct, the day and month remain undocumented. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s his paintings featured in numerous group shows and his works were acquired for collections in Australia and overseas. His obituaries, which appeared in newspapers around the world, generally referred to him as Clifford Possum and gave his age as about 70. They put down all the story, same like I do on canvas. In 1972 Clifford Possum was introduced to the emergent painting movement at Papunya by his cousin Kaapa Tjapitjinpa and brother Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri. Possums first contact with Europeans was through his father, who sold dingo scalps in exchange for tea and flour at the Jay Creek government ration depot. Numerous Indigenous Australians are noted for their participation in, and contributions to, the Visual arts of Australia and abroad. View sold price and similar items: CLIFFORD POSSUM TJAPALTJARRI (c1933 - 2002) Corroboree, Naprerby Station acrylic on canvas 122 x 99.5 cm (stretched and ready to han. [23] The bank sold it by auction in 1996. One [] Art lovers and collectors, both here and around the world, have held the Desert Masters in high regard, because of the efforts by individuals such as Clifford.Clifford passed away in Alice Springs on the 21st June 2002, after recently being recognised for his contribution to Australian Art and culture, by being made an "Officer of the Order of Australia". Over 60 major paintings, all with detailed annotations and spanning more than two decades of his output, are reproduced in this volume.