Uta Uta Tjangala

Tingarri Men at Warnmanpanya

1973

This work was created at the new outstation of Yayayi. It was commissioned by the Aboriginal Arts Board for the exhibition Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured thirteen museums in Canada from 1974 to 1976. After Geoffrey Bardon left Papunya, fellow school-teacher Peter Fannin took over the operations of Papunya Tula Artists. In 1973 Fannin began providing the artists with larger sheets of particle board like this one, which would set a precedent for larger canvases produced later.

During the Tjukurrpa, Tingarri ancestors used sacred objects to shape the earth, giving the land its sacred power and performing ceremonies. These objects were left for their descendants and are used in ceremonies today. The central circle in this painting is the claypan where a Tingarri ceremony was originally performed. Sacred objects are shown emerging from the claypan, demonstrating that they are both the source of, and the evidence of, ancestral power.

Language Group: Pintupi
Dates: 1926-1990

Uta Uta Tjangala was born in Dovers Hills, far west of Papunya. In the late 1950s, he led his family to Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff) where they made their first contact with white Australians. He later moved to the nearby government settlement of Papunya where, in 1971, he became one of the founding members of the Western Desert painting movement. Uta Uta was an important agitator for the return to homelands and was instrumental in establishing the Pintupi outstation at Yayayi in 1973, which would eventually result in the establishment of permanent settlements at Walungurru (Kintore) and Kiwirrkurra. His 1981 painting, Yumari, has become one of the most highly regarded artworks of the Papunya Tula art movement and helped gain international interest in Australian Aboriginal art. In 1985, Uta Uta was awarded the National Aboriginal Art Award.

UTA UTA TJANGALA, Tingarri Men at Warnmanpanya, 1973

Synthetic polymer paint on particle board. 48 3/16 × 37 in. (122.4 × 93.98 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997. 1991.0021.008.

Charlie Tjapangati (left) and Uta Uta Tjangala painting at Yinyilingki, 1979.

Photo by Fred Myers.

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