Tutama Tjapangati

Stars at Night Twinkling

1971

In April 1971, Geoffrey Bardon, the newly hired schoolteacher at Papunya, noticed the first murmurings of a painting movement taking place in the community. It was this painting that first caught his interest and made him recognize that the designs were not merely decorative, but contained an entire cosmos of meaning. Bardon noted that “the completeness of each circle or bull’s eye concentric circle and the symmetry of the shapes told in a stylized way of star-places completely formed in the ancestor country of the artist. A star had apparently the same completed and circular form as a campfire, of which morphologically it was a derivative.” Painted on a scrap of recycled cardboard, this humble work represents the first spark between two colliding worlds that would soon explode into a whole new constellation of art.

Language Groups: Winanpa and Pintupi
Dates: 1909–1987

Tutama Tjapangati was one of the founding artists and shareholders at Papunya Tula Artists. Being an important ceremonial leader for the Pintupi/Pitjantjatjara, Tutama was eager to depict his Tjukurrpa through his paintings. His painting style was unique for its energetic and loose brushwork that resembled styles that would later start-up in other communities in the 1980s and 90s. In his time, Tutama’s style was not favored by Papunya Tula’s managers for its so-called "messiness" and lack of commercial appeal. Branching away, Tutama, along with Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri and Nosepeg Tjupurrula, traveled to Sydney in 1981 to participate in one of first exhibitions to include Papunya Tula Artists that was not organized by the company. After the establishment of a Pintupi settlement at Yayayi, Tutama played an important role in educating children in cultural practices at the Yayayi school. He was also one of the first Pintupi men to own a camel, which he used to travel through his country. Tutama continued to paint for Papunya Tula Artists until his eyesight failed in the mid-1980s.

TUTAMA TJAPANGATI, Stars at Night Twinkling, 1971

Synthetic polymer paint on fiber cement cladding. 22 1/4 × 17 3/4 in. (56.5 × 45.1 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997. 1993.0008.004.

Tutama Tjapangati with school children at Yayayi, 1974.

Photo by Fred Myers.

Tutama Tjapangati at Papunya, 1974.

Photo by Fred Myers.

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