Walala Tjapaltjarri b. unknown

Biography
Language: Pintupi
Region: Kiwirrkurra, W.A.

In late 1984, Walala Tjapaltjarri and his brothers and sisters arrived in Kiwirrkurra, having roamed the remote country of the Gibson Desert for years. Walala and his family made their first contact with Westerners, having no prior awareness of European colonization of the Australian continent. They became known as the Pintupi Nine, or 'the lost tribe'. Walala commenced painting for the Papunya Tula Artist Co-operative in the late 1980s, and a number of his family members also forged acclaimed artistic careers, namely two of his brothers, Wirrlimpirrnga and Thomas Tjapaltjarri

 

Walala paints designs associated with the Tingari Dreaming or the Tingari Song Cycle, which is deeply significant to the Pintupi peoples of the Western Desert. It is usually the landscape associated with the sacred Tingari ancestors that Walala so strikingly depicts in his paintings. Using various iconography, Walala show the travels of the Tingari ancestors as they camped and created all that exists around them. His style is strongly gestural and boldly graphic, one that is generally highlighted by a series of rectangles set against a monochrome background.

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