Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri

Wallaby Dreaming at Tjunginpa

1990

By the 1980s, the use of linked concentric circles had become a common structural template among Western Desert painters. This painting shows Mick Namarari’s unique ability to improvise within this structure. Where his peers would more commonly fill the background with beaded lines of dots, Namarari uses a highly individual linear infill. In his late works, Namarari would increasingly explore the rhythmic possibilities of line, using it to evoke the movement of ancestral beings during the Tjukurrpa (Dreaming).

I paint real slow, no rush, slow.

MICK NAMARARI TJAPALTJARRI

Language Group: Pintupi
Dates: 1927-1998

Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri was one of the founding artists at Papunya. When the painting movement started in 1971, Mick Namarari’s work immediately stood out, as it signaled a departure from the traditional iconography of Pintupi painting, which included concentric circles and lines. He developed an abstract style on more expansive canvases, using striking undotted lines in his designs. In addition to varied stylistic approaches, he also had a diverse range of subjects, such as the site of Tjunginpa and a Dingo Tjukurrpa site at Nyunmanu, southeast of Kintore. In 1991 he won the National Aboriginal Art Award and in 1994 he was awarded co-winner of the Alice Prize and inaugural winner of the Red Ochre Award. Throughout his career, he made over 700 paintings. After his passing, two of Mick Namarari's children, Angelina Nungarrayi and Peter Tjungurrayi, started painting in a style reminiscent of their father’s. In 2017 Mick Namarari was given a solo retrospective titled The Mysteries that Remain at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. He is the subject of a major monograph, The Master from Marnpi, by Alec O'Halloran.

MICK NAMARARI TJAPALTJARRI, Wallaby Dreaming at Tjunginpa, 1990

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 73 1/2 × 60 3/4 in. (186.7 × 154.3 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997. 1990.7014.001.

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