His paintings are held in galleries and collections in Australia and elsewhere, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Na He has had a book published dedicated to him and his paintings, 'The Art of Clifford Possum Japaltjarri', by Vivien Johnson. Billy Stockman, another founding member of the Papunya Tula art movement, survived the massacre and was raised by Clifford Possums mother. Contact with Albrecht had an ongoing impact on Possum and his family. WARLUGULONG 1977. [17] It was purchased for A$1,200 by the Commonwealth Bank, which hung it in a bank training centre cafeteria on the Mornington Peninsula. [9], Around this central motif are arranged elements of eight other stories, all of them represented at least in part by sets of footprints. 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 . For further information please contact NPG Copyright. Consequently, Johnson's portrait of Tjapaltjarri includes symbols, objects and vignettes from Tjapaltjarri's life in a composition that evokes the sitter's presence and biography as well as his inner world and a deep cultural knowledge unconstrained by time. Geoffrey Bardon came to Papunya in the early 1970s and encouraged the Aboriginal people to put their dreaming . Hundreds of Aborigines were forced from tribal lands. In 1988, Londons Institute of Contemporary Art presented an exhibition of his paintings, and a second solo exhibition also in London in 1990 brought him critical acclaim in Europe and North America. http://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/clifford-possum-tjapaltjarri/. Free entry, Find out what you need to know before visiting, Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia. Genres. 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. The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. The work had been tipped to fetch up to A$2.5 million, more than double the then-record for Aboriginal art at auction. CLIFFORD POSSUM TJAPALTJARRI (AUSTRALIAN, 1932-2002) View catalog Sold: $11,000.00 Estimate: $8,000 - $14,000 November 19, 2022 10:00 AM CST St. Louis, MO, US Request more information Additional Details Description: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Aboriginal Australian (Anmatyerre), 1932-2002 Perentie Dreaming, c. 1986 Acrylic on canvas It has been said that her work "enabled the flowering of a whole new generation of Aboriginal artists". 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. Tjapaltjarri joined Papunya Tula Artists in February 1972 and was one of their founding directors. /  For a time he experimented with complex striping, linked dotting or overlapping the background with a patching pattern. One of the extraordinary qualities of Clifford's work and other Western Desert artists is that they are a visual writing and speak to the Aboriginal as books do to Europeans.When asked why he became an Artist, he answered,"That Dreaming been all the time. This was the last Aboriginal settlement built under the Menzies Liberal governments racist assimilation policy. All the young fella they bring 'em back kangaroo. 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. Possums family, like countless others, existed on government and mission rations with occasional low-paid work on nearby cattle farms. DOB:
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. However, beyond this general principle, she argues that the layout of symbols and images is influenced by the desire to present a symmetrical work. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. [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 Clifford, living at the Papunya Community, was one of the first artists to be involved with the Aboriginal Art Movement. In doing so Clifford, as well as the other artists involved with the Papunya Tula Movement, helped to develop the true definition of Aboriginal Art, an art revolving around a culture, The Jukurrpa.In some of his stories Clifford attempts to give a visual impression of sunlight, cloud, shadow and earth to denote specific times of the day. Possum's father was Tjatjiti Tjungurrayai and his mother was Long Rose Nangala. (270 x 128 cm.) Tjapaltjarri was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2002. 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. Tjapaltjarri, Clifford Possum (c. 1932-2002) Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia/ Bridgeman Berlin. Research 10 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri prices and auction results in Art. award rationale. Conditions were so bad during these years that Possums father perished from lack of water. His working life began at an early age on the Hamilton Downs cattle stationthe very industry that had driven his family from the land. Despite this success and his prolific output, Possums fame did not bring great personal wealth or security. Possum Tjapaltjarri contributed to the Indigenous Australian Art movement and died on June 21, 2002. In 1928 police shot and killed nearly 100 Aborigines at the infamous Coniston massacre. Possum received no formal education but knew six Aboriginal languages and a little English. His final days were spent at the Hetty Perkins Nursing Home in Alice Springs, where he passed away surrounded by close family and friends. After his father's death in the 1940s his mother married Gwoya Jungarai, better known as One Pound Jimmy, whose image was used on a well known Australian postage stamp. Search instead in Creative? [23] The bank sold it by auction in 1996. [21][22], Warlugulong was first exhibited at a show in Alice Springs, where it attracted crowds of interested viewers, but failed to sell. NOTICE:
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri REGION: PAPUNYA - NORTHERN TERRITORY LANGUAGE: ANMATYERRE B. Clifford Possum accurately described this period as the killing times. . 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. The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. 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. Showing Editorial results for clifford possum tjapaltjarri. An Anmatyerr man, he was born on Napperby Station near Alice Springs and started his working life in the 1940s as a stockman. His friendships and collaborations with Tjapaltjarri and other artists helped Johnson 'see the surface of a painting like a field representing the entire universe.' 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] Warlugulong's buyer was the National Gallery of Australia, which purchased the work as part of its 25th Anniversary Gifts Program. While Possum had two small exhibitions in Brisbane and Melbourne in 1987, his first major retrospective was at Londons Institute of Contemporary Art in 1988. At last, The Art of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri presents a comprehensive account of the work of this extraordinary artist. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932-2002) Collections: Artbank Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wale Read More. The artist's works have gone up for sale at public auction 402 times, mostly in the Painting category. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri - 14 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy Artists Artworks Auctions Viewing Rooms Galleries Fairs Shows Museums Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Australian, 1932-2002 Follow 99 Followers Active Secondary Market Overview Works for Sale (14) Auction Results Featured Works Artist Name Artwork Title Partner Price Artist Name 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. 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. Forty years ago, Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Tim Leura, Clifford Possum and Johnny Warangula were central to the constitution of contemporary desert art at Papunya. Lot includes the original bill of sale from Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime Gallery, 1990 and two photographs of the artist holding the painting.106.29 x 50.39 in. [9] Like the other four works of the period that are symbolic maps of the artist's country, the painting is accompanied by annotated diagrams of the images and notes that explain the dreamings that they include. For service as a contributor to and pioneer of the development of the Western Desert art movement, and to the indigenous community through interpretation of ancient traditions and cultural values. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932-2002) Collections: Artbank Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wale Read More. Find out more about Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri at the Aboriginal Art Directory Prodigy at Eighty - The Miracle of Emily Posted by Frannie Hopkirk | 2014-03-05 18:19:07 Emily Kame Kngwarreye. It became the first 'dot' painting to enter a major public art collection. 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 Tjapaltjarri worked alongside many of Australias discrete indigenous cultures, mastering six Western Desert languages and absorbing a vast swath of the traditional stories of the Dreaming. Posthumously, Tjapaltjarri's works are drawing increasing attention. www.redrockgallery.net/pages/Clifford-Possum-Tjapaltjarri.html. It sold for $2.4million, thoroughly eclipsing the previous record for an Indigenous Australian painting, set when Emily Kngwarreye's Earth's Creation was bought in May of the same year for just over $1million. Deborah Hart, Head Curator, Australia Art, leads a conversation with Australian artists Fiona Hall and Judy Watson (Waanyi people). Warlugulong is a 1977 acrylic on canvas painting by Indigenous Australian artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Warlugulong Often these techniques would be carefully interwoven into an integrated composition, overlaid with more dots to producing an illusion of changing spatial depth. NAVIGATION stated in. LANGUAGE GROUP: Anmatyerre
1977. See our exhibitions Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was born c. 1932 to Tjatjiti Tjungurrayai and Long Rose Nangala in Tjuirri, an area north-west of Alice Springs also known as Napperby Station. 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. Some of the many other famous Aboriginal artists who used dot art styles include . The work had been tipped to fetch up to A$2.5 million, more than double the then-record for Aboriginal art at auction. It exemplifies a distinctive painting style developed by Papunya Tula artists in the 1970s, and blends representation of landscape with ceremonial iconography. Four years prior to his birth, a harsh drought had compelled several groups of Aborigines into the Coniston area, producing tensions with local farmers who wanted the scarce water resources for their cattle. Primary Marketplace ( 2022 ): Australia Clifford Possum TJAPALTJARRI is an artist born in Australia c.1932 and deceased in 2002. In 1976, with the assistance of Tim Leura, he painted Warlugulong 1976, which he later described as his number one painting. Warlugulong is a 1977 acrylic on canvas painting by Indigenous Australian artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. In 1983 Possums Mulga Seed Dreaming won the 14th Alice Prize, an important breakthrough. But a year later his brother Tim died, deeply affecting Possum and ending many years of a close artistic collaboration. After learning how to muster and brand cattle, he became a stockman at Hamilton Downs and then head stockman at Narwietooma station. [13] Clifford Possum would often collaborate with other artists, particularly his brother Tim Leura, and the brothers together created the 1976 work of the same name. [24] After hanging in Ebes's living room for eleven years,[24] it was auctioned in Melbourne by Sotheby's on 24 July 2007. This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (1932 - 21 June 2002) was an Australian painter, considered one of the most collected and renowned Australian Aboriginal artists. 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. Find an AIE artist 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. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri: Warlugulong (2007) 1,758 views Nov 25, 2013 13 Dislike Share Save AGOD - Aboriginal Gallery Of Dreamings 42 subscribers Clifford's painting featured on the news. He was the chairman of the Papunya Tula Artists from the 1970's to the 1980's. 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 use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The conceptual purity of these works is a precursor to Clifford Possum's unparalleled skill in conjuring objects in space, describing the physical relationships below, above and beyond objects. He began carving in his late teens and had a reputation as a craftsman before the Papunya painting movement began. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri 'Warlugulong' Yuuma, Gurruburri. From our early days, before European people came up. 202-647-4000 | TTY:1-800-877-8339 (FRS) His determination to express and pass on his ancestral stories to the next generation became the means for forging his distinct artistic vision. Over 60 major paintings, all with detailed annotations and spanning more than two decades of his output, are reproduced in this volume. This broad stretch of territory defined the diversity of subject matter in Clifford's paintings. During the '70s and '80s, he and his family lived at Papunya, Napperby Station, M'bunghara outstation near Glen Helen, and then Alice Springs. 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. Diversity in the Desert. Njega i njegove sunarodnjake je 1960. australijska vlada preselila iz Zapadne pustinje u Alice Springs kako bi se lake asimilirali u zapadnu kulturu. He was of the Peltharr skin. 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. 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. He worked extensively as a stockman on the cattle stations in and around his traditional country. [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. 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. [3], 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. The other artists working with him took his lead and removed any elements of European Art from their work. Same all the ladies, they been get all the bush fruit, might be bush onion, plum, might be honey ants, might be yala, all the kungkas (women) bring them back. Phone:(02) 9555 5283 World:+612 9555 5283680 Darling St. Rozelle NSW 2039 Australia. /  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. Tjapaltjarri was 44, and one of the founders of a flourishing art community in the small aboriginal village of Papunya. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified. 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