Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri facts for kids

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri (born in the late 1950s) is a famous Australian Aboriginal artist. He is known as one of central Australia's most important Indigenous artists.

Early Life and First Contact

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri was born in the late 1950s. His birthplace was near Lake Mackay, in a remote part of Western Australia. His family belonged to the Pintupi people. They lived a traditional nomadic life, moving around to hunt and gather food. They had never met people from outside their own community.

When Warlimpirrnga was a young boy, his father passed away. His mother soon remarried. Around 1980, Warlimpirrnga married his cousin, Yalti. He was the main person who found food for his family. He hunted using spears, spear-throwers (called mirru), and boomerangs.

In 1984, when Warlimpirrnga was about 25 years old, he and his family met people from the outside world for the first time. He remembers seeing a white man and being very surprised. He thought the man was a "bad spirit" because of his skin color. A few days later, his family settled in a place called Kiwirrkurra. News of their traditional way of life, so far into the modern world, became famous around the world.

Painting and Artistic Style

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri began painting in 1987. He worked with an art company called Papunya Tula. Other artists helped him learn. He finished his first painting for them in April 1987. His first public art show was in Melbourne the next year. Eleven of his paintings were shown there. All of them were bought by the National Gallery of Victoria. Since then, he has become one of central Australia's most famous artists.

Warlimpirrnga creates abstract paintings. These artworks tell sacred stories and songs from his family's Dreaming. The Dreaming is a very important part of Aboriginal culture. It tells about the Tingari, who are the ancestors of the Pintupi people. These spirit beings are believed to have created all living things. His paintings often show his homeland and important sacred sites like Marruwa and Kanapilya.

His art often shows detailed patterns that look like maps of the land. These patterns show sacred places such as Lake Mackay and Marawa, where his Pintupi ancestors traveled. He uses thousands of thin, delicate lines that seem to overlap. This creates a feeling of movement and depth in his paintings. Warlimpirrnga mainly uses colors found in his homeland. These include white, dark red, grey, and sometimes black.

Global Recognition

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri's art is displayed in many important public collections in Australia. These include the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the National Gallery of Victoria. His work is also in galleries overseas. You can find it at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection in the United States. In 2012, his art was part of a big art show called documenta in Germany.

In September 2015, Warlimpirrnga became well-known in the United States. He was featured in an article on the front page of the New York Times Saturday Arts Page. The article was titled "An Aboriginal Artist's Dizzying New York Moment." He was shown in a color photo with one of his abstract paintings. A positive review by a critic helped him gain more attention.

In September 2016, one of his paintings sold for a large amount of money at Sotheby's in London. In October 2016, he had his first art show all by himself in the United States. This show was at the Salon 94 gallery in New York City.

In March 2019, a TV show on Netflix called After Life, created by Ricky Gervais, showed a copy of one of Warlimpirrnga's paintings. An artist had made this copy for a props company in 1999. Ricky Gervais's company agreed to pay for using the copy of the artwork. They also paid a fee to use the artwork in the second season of the show.

Warlimpirrnga's paintings have even influenced music. The Australian composer Newton Armstrong created an album in 2020 called "The Way to Go Out." The music on this album was inspired by Warlimpirrnga's art. Armstrong wanted to create a "dense and mesmerising" sound, similar to the feeling of Warlimpirrnga's detailed paintings.

See also

In Spanish: Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri para niños