Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa

Hill Site of Karilywarra

1988

Karilywarra is a site associated with Kuniya Kutjarra Tjukurrpa (Two Carpet Snake / Rock Python ancestors) who rested there, before traveling further to the west before they were killed. Karilywarra has been an inspiration for both men and women artists. The conception Dreaming site of Freddy West Tjakamarra’s father, whose Tjukurrpa incarnation came here with a ceremonial gift of meat, this rockhole and associated claypan have been painted by three celebrated artists: Freddy West, Naata Nungurrayi, and her son Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa. Whereas his mother often references the coiled bodies of the snake, in this painting, Kenny Williams uses the classical iconographies of wavy lines to evoke the tracks of the snakes on the ground and circles to indicate the claypans left by the movement of their bodies across their surfaces

Language Group: Pintupi
Date: Born c. 1950

Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa was born at Iliya near present-day Kiwirrkurra. Kenny is the son of Papunya Tula artist, Naata Nungurrayi and her husband Pilamartitja Tjangala. In 1964, Kenny and members of his family group were brought into Papunya by Jeremy Long’s NT Welfare Branch Patrol. With the guidance of Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Kenny began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in May 1988. Kenny also served as Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists for some years and in 2000, he was awarded the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.

KENNY WILLIAMS TJAMPITJINPA, Hill Site of Karilywarra, 1988

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 47 5/8 × 60 in. (121 × 152.4 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997. 1990.7006.007.

Snake coils at Karilywarra, 1988.

Photo by Fred Myers.

Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa working on the ground work for Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000.

Photo courtesy of Papunya Tula Artists.

Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa with his prize winning work Snake Tjukurrpa (2000) at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Photo by Paul Sweeney.

Courtesy of Papunya Tula Artists.

Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, 2000.

Photo by Paul Sweeney

Courtesy of Papunya Tula Artists

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