Language Group: Anmatyerr
Dates: c. 1932-2002

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was one of the last men to join Papunya Tula Artists and the first Aboriginal Australian artist to gain international fame. Clifford Possum was born on Napperby Station in the eastern portion of Anmatyerr Country, where his family had moved following the Coniston Massacre of the mid-1920s. His mother also raised Bill Stockman Tjapaltjarri whose own mother had been killed in the massacre. In 1976, he was selected to paint for the BBC film-makers of Desert Dreamers, in which he collaborated with his brother Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri. Clifford Possum also served as chairperson of Papunya Tula Artists during the early 1980s. His first solo exhibition was held in 1988 at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and was the first time an Australian Aboriginal artist received a solo exhibition from a major international institution. Over the next decade, Clifford Possum would become the most widely traveled Aboriginal artist of his generation and an ambassador for Aboriginal art around the world. In 1996, he was the subject of the major monograph, The Art of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri by Vivien Johnson and in 2002 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.