John & Barbara Wilkerson

Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi Pintupi, circa 1920-1987

Children’s Water Dreaming (Version 2) [formerly Water Story], 1972

Synthetic polymer paint on composition board

24 ¼ x 17 ½ max inches (61.6 x 44.45 max cm)

Photo: Tony De Camillo for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University

Pintupi Language Group

Provenance

The Artist, painted at Alice Springs, Northern Territory, May - July 1972

Stuart Art Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, consignment 14, painting 3, cat. no. 14003

Tim Guthrie Collection, Melbourne

Private Collection, Melbourne

Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 29 June 1998, lot 46

Collection of John and Barbara Wilkerson, New York

Exhibitions

Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya, The Herbert F Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 10 January - 5 April 2009; Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, 3 May - 2 August 2009; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, 1 September - 5 December 2009

Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art, The Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 30 September 2011- 12 February 2012; Musee du quai Branly, Paris, France, 9 October 2012- 20 January 2013

Abstraction & the Dreaming: Aboriginal Paintings from Australia’s Western Desert (1971 – Present), Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Utah, 11 September - 12 December 2015

Everywhen: The External Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 5 February - 18 September 2016

Australian Consulate-General New York, Official Consul General Residence, New York, 5 October 2021 - 20 October 2022

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

Publications

Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 29 June 1998, p. 37

Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink, Papunya Tula: Genesis And Genius, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000, p. 46, 285 (illus.)

Geoffrey Bardon and James Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press, 2004, p. 487, painting 469

Vanessa Merlino and Luke Scholes, 60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, 2023, p. 40-41 (illus.)

Fred Myers and Terry Smith, Six Paintings from Papunya: A Conversation, Durham: Duke University Press:, 2024

Thomas Connors, The Magazine Antiques, Cultural Crossings, July/August 2025, p. 130 - 141

“Widely published and exhibited in Australia and internationally, Children’s Water Dreaming is an icon of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement. Its dynamic composition, use of negative space and linear complexity delivers a compelling image.

Given the cultural and linguistic barriers between the artists and those who acquired the works, the exact subject of some early Papunya paintings remains ambiguous. With Children’s Water Dreaming (Version 2) having been completed in 1972, differing explanations have been offered to explain its significance. Originally it was thought that it referred to the artist’s knowledge of a specific Water Dreaming site, then it was attributed to the artist’s birthplace of Lampintjanya. Most recently, however, it has been suggested that it depicts a human hair spindle used in the manufacture of hairstring for ceremonial purposes.” (Vanessa Merlino and Luke Scholes, 60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, 2023, p. 40)

of 47

Related artworks

Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi, Mystery Sand Mosaic, 1974
Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi, Tingarri Ceremony at Ilingawurngawurrnga, 1974
Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi, Classic Pintupi Water Dreaming [formerly Water Dreaming], 1972
Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Tjunginpa, 1991

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