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This website was developed for the exhibition Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu | Past & Present Together: Fifty Years of Papunya Tula Artists that was on view at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia from 2021-23 and the Embassy of Australia in Washington, DC in 2024. It was made possible by our creative partnership with Papunya Tula Artists and the generous support of UVA Arts Council. Site design by Urban Fugitive for V21 Artspace.
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Willy Tjungurrayi

Kirritjinya
2016

This painting depicts designs related to a rock hole called Kirritjinya. In the Tjukurrpa, a large group of ancestral men known as the Tingarri ancestors camped at this site before traveling on to Kaakurutintjinya (Lake Mcdonald).

Language Groups: Pintupi and Winapa
Dates: 1932–2018

Willy Tjungurrayi was born at Patjantja to the south-west of Lake Macdonald, circa 1930. He is the second of three brothers, one of whom was fellow Papunya Tula artist Yala Yala Gibbs. Willy was living on the western side of Lake Macdonald prior to moving to Papunya with a large group in 1959, when that settlement was created due to water supply issues in Haasts Bluff. In 1999, Willy contributed to the Kintore mens' painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. Willy passed away in Alice Springs in May 2018.

Are you related to this artist? Are you a scholar of artwork from the Papunya Tula movement? Please contact us at kluge-ruhe@virginia.edu if you would like to add something to this page or see something that is missing or incorrect.
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