Charlie Wartuma Tjungurrayi

Frost at Tjitururrnga

1971

Tjitururrnga is over there (pointing to the northwestern horizon). It’s level with Mantarti. It’s a rockhole, Tjilpi Tjuta dancing, old woman dancing. My son was dancing, they were teaching him. Wati minyma mix (old men and women in combination). Ngayuku tjamuku ngurra (my grandfather’s home). Singing and dancing.

EILEEN NAPALTJARRI

Language Group: Pintupi
Dates: 1925-1999

Charlie Wartuma Tjungurrayi was born west of Walungurru at Tjitururrnga in the mid 1920s. He was one of the founding artists at Papunya in 1971 and an original shareholder of Papunya Tula Artists. Charlie’s work most often features stories from around the area of Tjitururrnga and includes Emu, Wallaby, Yam, Water and Frog Dreamings, as well as parts of the Yina Tjukurrpa (Old Man Dreaming) he shared with others. He painted from the beginning of the painting movement in 1971 to his death in July of 1999 and was the first of the founding members to receive his own retrospective. Charlie had nine children with his wife, Tatali Nangala, who also became a recognized painter. Tragically, three of their sons and two of their daughters died before their parents. Charlie’s surviving daughter, Eileen Napaltjarri, is also a painter.

Biographical information sourced from Vivien Johnson, Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists. Alice Springs: IAD Press, 2008.

CHARLIE WARTUMA TJUNGURRAYI, Frost at Tjitururrnga, 1971

Synthetic polymer paint on composition board. 11 1/4 × 11 in. (28.6 × 27.9 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997. 1996.0002.006.

Charlie Wartuma Tjungurrayi, 1988.

Photo by Fred Myers.

Are you related to this artist? Are you a scholar of artwork from the Papunya Tula movement? Please contact us at kluge-ruhe@virginia.edu if you would like to add something to this page or see something that is missing or incorrect.