Clifford POSSUM TJAPALTJARRI - Warlugulong
ADG: 1075
DescriptionCLICK HERE TO VIEW ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Warlugulong Sons of Lungata - Story of painting
Warlugulong is the Anmatyerre name for a site 200 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs where, in ancestral times, Lungkata the Blue-Tongue Lizard Man created the first great bushfire. The boys’ father asks his two sons to go out hunting, but instead of travelling out into the desert to look for game, they kill and roast the old man’s sacred kangaroo. When the old man- the Blue Tongue Lizard Man- returns from ceremonies he find his sons cooking his pet. He becomes enraged and uses his blue tongue to light a magic fire. The boys flee with their two spears, woomeras, stone knives and headbands, but they perish in the fire.
Clifford POSSUM TJAPALTJARRI AO - Biography
c.1932 - 2002
Language Anmatyerre, Arrernte
Location Napperby, Mount Allan - Yuelumu
Community Papunya, Alice Springs
Country Karinyarra- Mount Wedge, Tjuirri- Napperby Station, Mount Allan
Art Centre Papunya Tula Artists
Region Western Desert, Northern Territory
Stories Possum, Fire, Kangaroo, Fish, Snake, Man's Love Story, Goanna, Water, Mala, Lightning
Clifford was born on Napperby Station. From the 1940s he carved and decorated weapons such as boomerangs and bullroarers with landscape scenes for sale to tourists. Clifford and his brother Tim Leura, also a famous artist were moved to a new settlement at Papunya, which had been established in 1959 because of the British atomic bomb tests in the Western Desert from 1955 to 1963.
Clifford and Tim Leura became members of the first group of artists to join Geoffrey Bardon’s painting group and the newly formed Papunya Tula Artists company. Clifford later became the Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists. A very quiet private man, he was generous in his gifts to his extended family. Clifford is survived by his artist children, Gabriella, Michelle and Lionel.
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra, ACT, Australia
South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Broken Hill, NSW, Australia
Artbank, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Federal Airports Corporation, Alice Springs Airport, Alice Springs, NT, Australia
The Holmes à Court Collection, Perth, WA, Australia
Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles, USA
Donald Kahn Collection, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, CA, USA
Publications
Vivian Johnson, The Art of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, 1994
Achievements
1970s-1980s Chairman, Papunya Tula Artists Company, NT
Commissions
1985 Mural Design, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, NT
1991 Mural - Strehlow Research Foundation, Alice Springs, NT
1991 Mural - Painting, Passenger Lounge, new Alice Springs Airport, Alice Springs, NT
Awards, Prizes
1983 The Alice Prize, Alice Springs
2002 Order of Australia -AO
Ranking - Most Important Aboriginal Artists (Both living and deceased)
2011 Ranked 4/100