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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri, Rockholes and country near the Olgas, 2007

Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri Pitjantjatjara language, circa 1920-2008

Rockholes and country near the Olgas, 2007
Synthetic polymer paint on linen
80.75 x 118.1 inches (205 x 300 cm)
Photo: Courtesy of D’Lan Contemporary
View on a Wall
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Provenance

The Artist, painted at Mt. Leibig, Northern Territory, 2007

Watiyawanu Artists of Amunturrngu, Mt. Leibig, Northern Territory, cat. no 77-07309

Scott Livesey Galleries, Victoria, Australia

ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore, 13 Jun 2019 

Collection of Steve Martin & Anne Stringfield, New York

Exhibitions

Four Painters, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne, September 2007

Desert Painters of Australia: Works from the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia and the Collection of Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield. Gagosian, New York. May 3–July 3 2019

60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, New York, May 2023

Literature

Vanessa Merlino and Luke Scholes, 60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, 2023, p. 26-27 (illus.)

Bill Whiskey's art focuses almost exclusively on the ancestral white cockatoo story from his birthplace of Pirupa Alka, located 130 kilometers south of Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) in Central Australia. This story highlights three birds — the white cockatoo, his friend the eagle, and their adversary, the crow. 


The floating roundels, which are some of the most striking compositional elements of the design, symbolise the rock pools formed in the vast desert landscape during the battle between the ancestral birds. Bill Whiskey was the first to conceptualise and innovative stylistic depictions of his birthplace, developing specific iconography for this story within the broader conventions of Western Desert painting. These distinguishing features of his work are products of his mind's eye, perceiving Country as a continuum.

Text from Vanessa Merlino in "60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art." p. 26 - 27 (illus.)

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  • Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri, Rockholes near the Olgas, 2007
    Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri, Rockholes near the Olgas, 2007

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