Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka

Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka (late 1920s – 1999) was an Australian Aboriginal artist. He was one of the first members of the Papunya Tula art movement. He is a well-known painter of Western Desert art.[1][2] He belonged to the Pintupi community, and painted stories from the Pintupi Dreaming (Tingari).[3] He painted mythological events that happened around his homeland, including around Winparrku, Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay.[4]

Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka
Bornc. 1928
Yumari, Western Australia, Australia
Died1999
NationalityAustralian
OccupationPainter
Years activemid-1970s – 1999
OrganizationPapunya Tula
StyleWestern Desert art
ChildrenMatthew Tjapangati (early 1960s)
Nyilyari Tjapangati (c. 1965)

Pinta Pinta was from Western Australia. He was born at Yumari, a place in the Great Sandy Desert. He was probably born sometime in the late 1920s (around 1927 or 1928).[3][5] Before contact with White society, he lived a nomadic way of life in the desert. In the 1950s, he walked with his family to stay at Haasts Bluff, a government rations outpost. This was his first contact with modern Australian civilisation.[3] His was one of the last groups in the country to come out of the desert.[6]

Pinta Pinta began painting in the mid-1970s, at Papunya. He moved to Kintore after it was founded in 1981. In 1984, Pinta Pinta and his family set up an outstation at Winparrku (Mount Webb), between Kintore and Kiwirrkurra.[7] The family moved here shortly after. In 1988, he had a small part in the movie Evil Angels.[3]

His paintings mostly stick to black, white and ochre in colour. The most obvious motif seen in them is the circles and lines, which depict dreaming tracks. Some of his works are in the Australian Museum, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.[3][5]

He had two sons, Matthew (born early 1960s) and Nyilyari (born about 1965). Nyilyari also became a famous artist.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Patrick Corbally Stourton, Nigel Corbally Stourton (1996). Songlines and dreamings: contemporary Australian aboriginal painting. Lund Humphries. p. 127.
  2. ^ Hetti Perkins, Hannah Fink (2000). Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius. Art Gallery of New South Wales. pp. 134–5. ISBN 9780734763068.
  3. ^ a b c d e Johnson, Vivien (2011). "Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka". Design and Art Australia Online. College of Fine Arts. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  4. ^ a b Kieran Finnane; Darren Jorgensen, Felicity Green (ed.), Togart Contemporary Art Award 2010 (PDF), The Toga Group, p. 41, retrieved 26 July 2012
  5. ^ a b "Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka". Collection Online. National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  6. ^ Johnson, Vivien (2008). Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists. IAD Press. p. 124.
  7. ^ Adlam, Nigel (3 February 2007). "Lost tribe happy in modern world". Herald Sun. Herald & Weekly Times Pty Ltd.