Title
Untitled
1971
Artist
Charlie Wartuma Tjungurrayi
Australia
circa 1921 – 1999
Language group: Pintupi, Western Desert region
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Details
- Alternative title
- (Women's dreaming)
- Places where the work was made
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Australia
Papunya → Northern Territory → Australia
- Date
- 1971
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- synthetic polymer paint on composition board
- Dimensions
- 91.4 x 20.3 cm
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Donated through the Australian Governments cultural gifts program by Elizabeth Ritson and Michael Kerin Morgan AO 2022
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 91.2022
- Copyright
- © Estate of the artist. Licensed by Aborigiinal Artists Agency Ltd
- Artist information
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Charlie Wartuma Tjungurrayi
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Wartuma Tjungurrayi, also known as Charlie, was central to the group of men who began painting at Papunya, NT in 1971 and was a founding member of the Aboriginal company, Papunya Tula Artists. Tjungurrayi painted consistently from 1971 to 1999 and is often remembered for stating, ‘If I don’t paint this story some whitefella might come and steal my country.’
This comment was no doubt informed by Tjungurrayi’s experiences living in Papunya: a government settlement designed with the intention of centralising and assimilating Aboriginal people from the surrounding regions where compliance to European norms was expected. Within this environment, Tjungurrayi and his peers used painting as a means of maintaining culture, remembering Tjukurrpa and allaying their longing for home.
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Places
Where the work was made
Australia, Papunya