Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
Dreaming Story at Warlugulong, 1976
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas board
19 ¾ x 15 ¾ inches (50.17 x 40.01 cm)
Photo: Tony De Camillo for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University
Provenance
The Artist, painted at Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, cat. no. CP761025
Private Collection, acquired from the above in 1976
Sotheby's, Fine Aboriginal and Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 17 June, 1996, lot 1
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
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
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
Vivien Johnson, The Art of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Craftsman House, 1994, plate 9, 16, p. 49-59, 154-155
Sotheby's, Fine Aboriginal and Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 17 June, 1996, p. 9
Hetti Perkins and Vivien Johnson, Warlugulong 1976, Australian Collection Focus Series no. 4 Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1999
Johnson, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, 2004, p. 86-99, 223
Roger Benjamin, Fred Meyers, Vivien Johnson, et al., Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya, The Herbert F Johnson Museum, Cornell University, 2009, p. 156-157
Vanessa Merlino and Luke Scholes, 60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, 2023 (illus.)
"This painting depicts the sacred Bushfire Dreaming story. It is named after the place west of Yuendumu where the fire began, indicated by the concentric circles at the centre of the glowing fire-burst, which conveys the explosive nature of the fire. The charcoal grey areas indicate the burnt-out country, and the white dots represent ash" (The National Museum of Australia)
Related artworks
-
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Emu Corroboree Man, 1972 -
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Women’s Dreaming about Bush Tucker “Yarlga”, 1972
