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. 1977. (Sotheby's) A dot painting by Indigenous artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri broke the existing record for an Aboriginal artwork at auction . "Clifford is one of the most renown Aboriginal Artists of his time. While white settlers and government officials had driven tens of thousands of Aborigines from Australias richest farming land during the 19th century, the dispossession of central Australian Aborigines did not occur until the early 1900s and continued during the early years of Possums life. Tim Johnson, Tim Johnson Geoffrey Bardon came to Papunya in the early 1970s and encouraged the Aboriginal people to put their dreaming . Possum's father was Tjatjiti Tjungurrayai and his mother was Long Rose Nangala. In contrast to Namatjiras realistic watercolours, Bardon supplied them acrylic paint and discouraged references to Western images. There was legal controversy surrounding his burial, as his surviving family and community maintained he wished to be buried in a location different from that specified in his will. [notes 1] Owned for many years by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the work was sold by art dealer Hank Ebes on 24 July 2007, setting a record price for a contemporary Indigenous Australian art work bought at auction when it was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia for A$2.4million. From our early days, before European people came up. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri 'Warlugulong' Yuuma, Gurruburri. 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. The incident led to the first conviction of an Australian art dealer for fraud and saw some malicious and undeserved criticism directed against the artist by a number of influential collectors. Submit artwork for exhibitions Hundreds of Aborigines were forced from tribal lands. Master weaver Yvonne Koolmatrie is passionate about preserving the near lost art of Ngarrindjeri weaving. 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. His career as an artist began in the 1950's when he carved snakes and goannas. There is greater visual symmetry in this painting than in its 1976 predecessor; symmetry is a strong influence in the works of many of the early Western Desert artists, including Clifford Possum, Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri and Kaapa Tjampitjinpa. 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. Reed Enger, "Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Reclaiming the land," in Obelisk Art History, Published January 16, 2020; last modified November 06, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/clifford-possum-tjapaltjarri/. The image is used according to Educational Fair Use, and tagged Maps. He was chosen by Papunya Tula Artists to paint, with his brother Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, the large canvas that became Warlugulong, 1976, for a BBC documentary, Desert Dreamers. 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. 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". A co-founder of the audacious Papunya Tula style and the first Aboriginal painter to be critically acclaimed by art patrons in Europe and North America, Clifford Possums life bore all the scars of poverty and racist oppression confronting Aborigines in central Australia in the 20th century. His two daughters, Gabriella Possum Nungurayyi and Michelle Possum Nungurayyi, are renowned artists in their own right. He began carving in his late teens and had a reputation as a craftsman before the Papunya painting movement began. These included a number of paintings depicting Warlugulong, the Bushfire Dreaming story relating to his mother's birthplace. While his year of birth is considered to be approximately correct, the day and month remain undocumented. [3] The authors of the National Gallery of Australia's book, Collection Highlights, characterises the painting as the artist's most significant. Albrecht from Hermannsburg Lutheran mission noticed that the young Clifford was suffering from severe malnutrition during one of these visits and arranged for him to be nursed back to health at the mission and then returned to his mother. Pre-auction, the work was expected to make art history as the most expensive Aboriginal canvas at auction. This iconic painting, 'Man's Love Story' 1978, was purchased by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1980. ABN 70 592 297 967|The National Museum of Australia is an Australian Government Agency, Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Old Masters: Australia's Great Bark Artists, Australia's Defining Moments Digital Classroom. This website contains names, images and voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This was the last Aboriginal settlement built under the Menzies Liberal governments racist assimilation policy. Over 60 major paintings, all with detailed annotations and spanning more than two decades of his output, are reproduced in this volume. Join the conversation in our Discord, and if you enjoy content like this, consider becoming a member for exclusive essays, downloadables, and discounts in the Obelisk Store. Numerous Indigenous Australians are noted for their participation in, and contributions to, the Visual arts of Australia and abroad. His skill and inventiveness and his enormous enthusiasm for life made him the most celebrated Aboriginal artist of his generation. 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. His friendships and collaborations with Tjapaltjarri and other artists helped Johnson 'see the surface of a painting like a field representing the entire universe.' His obituaries, which appeared in newspapers around the world, generally referred to him as Clifford Possum and gave his age as about 70. Source See Warlugulong in the Kaleidoscope. In the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Clifford Possum was Chairman of this group and in 1990 presented the Queen Elizabeth II with one of his paintings. Check out news and media, U.S. Department of State It makes accessible the development of a master painter of the Anmatyerre tribe, one . award rationale. Additional documents supplied by Central Australian . He was the chairman of the Papunya Tula Artists from the 1970's to the 1980's. By the time he started visiting Papunya in the mid-1960s he had a well-established reputation as a woodcarver, based on his talent for capturing lifelike effects of motion. After completing five works of similar scale and style during the 1970s, Possum began experimenting with colour and subtle modifications of traditional symbols. Its striking central fireburst depicts the Fire Dreaming site where Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarris mother, Long Rose Nangala, was born. 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. What is now referred to as the Papunya movement began in 1971, when the men started transferring their designs from the body and the ground onto panels of masonite and other moveable surfaces. Possum was of the Anmatyerre culture-linguistic group from around Alherramp (Laramba) community. [16], While the painting has been described as showing the story of an ancestral being called Lungkata starting the first bushfire,[13] it portrays elements of nine distinct dreamings, of which Lungkata's tale is the central motif. Everybody painted. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri died in Alice Springs on the day he was scheduled to be invested with the Order of Australia for his contributions to art and to the Indigenous community. WARLUGULONG 1977. Toward the end of his life Tjapaltjarri was recognised as one of Australia's great painters, and in 2004, when the National Gallery of Victoria presented Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, he became the first of the Papunya Tula artists to have a retrospective exhibition at a major Australian art museum. 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. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO Born: c.1932; Napperby, Australia Died: June 21, 2002; Alice Springs / Stuart, Australia Nationality: Australian Art Movement: Native Art Painting School: Papunya Tula Field: painting Family and Relatives: Michelle Possum Nungurrayi, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi Anmatyerr, Central Desert region. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Anmatyerr people (1932-2002), Warlugulong 1977. STAY CONNECTED This was followed two years later by another London exhibition, which was favourably reviewed in the prestigious Artline magazine. The artist's works have gone up for sale at public auction 402 times, mostly in the Painting category. His final days were spent at the Hetty Perkins Nursing Home in Alice Springs, where he passed away surrounded by close family and friends. Papunya Tula Artists Ltd. was formed in 1972. See our exhibitions HID01801242017 Dimensions 50.5in x 28in x 0in Artist or Maker The artist's majestic painting Warlugulong (previously bought by the Commonwealth Bank for just $1,200) was auctioned by Sotheby's on 24 July 2007. [6][7] Clifford Possum was the first to make this transition commencing with a related painting, also titled Warlugulong (1976), now held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. His working life began at an early age on the Hamilton Downs cattle stationthe very industry that had driven his family from the land. 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