Billy STOCKMAN TJAPALTJARRI - Spider Dreaming

Billy STOCKMAN TJAPALTJARRI - Spider Dreaming

c.1988, 178 x 298cm ADG:733

ADG: 733

Description

Spider Dreaming, c.1988 - Story of painting
The Spider Dreaming story depicts the artist’s totems,- carpet snakes and spider tracks meandering across the desert landscape. The striped body paint design of the snake indicates it is painted up for ceremony. As custodian of the totem, Billy had cultural responsibility to look after the Carpet Snake to ensure its survival in the environment.

Billy STOCKMAN TJAPALTJARRI - Biography
Born c. 1927
Area Coniston
Language Anmatyerre /Western Arrente
Country Ilypili
Community Mt Denison - Napperby
Region Western Desert
Stories Water, Carpet Snake, Yala (Wild potato), Men’s Dreaming, Honey Ant

Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri was born near Mt Denison, north-west of Papunya, c.1927 of the Anmatyerre/Western Arrente language groups. His first contact with non-Indigenous people was as an infant survivor of the Coniston massacre (1928). Billy was brought up as an adopted brother by Clifford POSSUM TJAPALTJARRI (c.1932-2002). The brothers were both founding members of the original Papunya painting group, assisting to paint the Honey Ant Dreaming design on the school wall which is recognised as the genesis of the desert art painting movement in the early 1970s.

Billy Stockman served on the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts from 1975 to 1979 and was Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists from 1976 to 1977.

Collections
Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands
Artbank, Sydney
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Australian National University, Canberra
Australian Qantas Collection
Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney
Christensen Collection, Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra
Donald Kahn collection, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
National Art Gallery of New Zealand
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Museum, Canberra Richard Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
Peter Stuyvesant Collection
South Australian Museum, Adelaide
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
University of Western Australia Anthropology Museum, Perth
Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne

Exhibitions
2010 Papunya Painting: Out of the Desert, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, ACT
2000 Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW
1994 Dreamings - Tjukurrpa: Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert, The Donald Kahn collection, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich
1993 Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA
1992 Tjukurrpa, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Basel
1991 The Painted Dream: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings from the Tim and Vivien Johnson Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery and Te Whare Taonga o Aoteroa National Art Gallery, New Zealand
1991 Canvas and Bark, South Australian Museum, Adelaide
1991 Australian Aboriginal Art from the Collection of Donald Kahn, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA
1991 Alice to Penzance, The Mall Galleries, The Mall, London
1989 A selection of Aboriginal Art owned by the ANU, Drill Hall Gallery, ACT
1988 The Inspired Dream, Life as art in Aboriginal Australia, Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory and touring internationally
1987 A selection of Aboriginal Art owned by the ANU, Drill Hall Gallery, ACT
1985 The Face of the Centre: Papunya Tula Paintings 1971-1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1985 Dot and Circle, a retrospective survey of the Aboriginal acrylic paintings of Central Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne
1984 Anvil Art Gallery, Albury, New South Wales
1983 Mori Gallery, Sydney
1982 Georges Exhibition, Melbourne, Victoria
1977 Nigerian Festival, Lagos, Nigeria
1977 Christ College, Oakleigh, Victoria
1974 Anvil Art Gallery, Albury, New South Wales
1971 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Western Australia

Bibliography
Australian Aboriginal Art from the Collection of Donald Kahn, 1991, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA
Bardon, G., 1979, Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert, Rigby, Adelaide, SA
Berndt, R. M. and Berndt, C. H. with Stanton, J., 1982, Aboriginal Australian Art, a Visual Perspective, Methuen Australia Pty Ltd, Sydney, NSW
Brody, A., 1985, The face of the centre: Papunya Tula paintings 1971-1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC
Bardon, G., 1991, Papunya Tula Art of the Western Desert, McPhee Gribble, Ringwood, VIC
Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London, UK
Isaacs, J., 1989, Australian Aboriginal Paintings, Weldon Publishing, New South Wales
Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales
Maughan, J., and Zimmer, J., 1986, Dot and Circle, a Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Paintings of Central Australia, Communication Services Unit, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, VIC
Schulz, D., 1994, Lines from the Dreamtime, The Australian Way, Qantas in flight magazine, May 1994
West, M.K.C., 1988, The Inspired Dream, Life as art in Aboriginal Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
1993, Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA

Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri is ranked amongst one of the most important Australian Indigenous Artists.

Ranking Most Important Australian Indigenous Artists (both living and deceased)
2011       Ranked  36/200

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