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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Tjunginpa, 1991

Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri

Tjunginpa, 1991
Synthetic polymer paint on linen
48 ¼ x 71 ⅞ inches (122.5 x 182.5 cm)
Photo: Tony De Camillo for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University
Pintupi Language Group
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Provenance

The Artist, painted at Kintore, Northern Territory, 1991

Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, cat. no. MN900517

Private Collection, Los Angeles

Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 28 June 1999, lot 29

Collection of John and Barbara Wilkerson, New York

Exhibitions

Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 18 August - 12 November 2000

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

60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, New York, 15 - 20 May, 2023

Publications

Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 28 June 1999, p. 27

Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink, Papunya Tula: Genesis And Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000 p. 105 (illus.), 278

Vivien Johnson, Lives of the Papunya Tula Artist, IAD Press, 2008, p. 167

Vanessa Merlino and Luke Scholes, 60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, 2023, p. 56-67 (illus.)

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

"This austere late-career work by Mick Namarari sits in stark contrast to his early works, which were often defined by highly decorated objects and complex iconography. Having created this painting twenty years after he was introduced to synthetic paint and board, Namarari fills the expanse of the canvas with intermittent brush strokes of yellow and red ochre. Each mark illustrates the journey of an ancestral Bettong (a desert marsupial) as it hops toward the site of Tjunginpa. The trail of interspersed white dots evokes the flora the Bettong traverses. Namarari's abstracted forms provide a unique sense of the mysterious geography of the desert and the ancestral narratives that chart it.

 

Throughout his painting career, Namarari was renowned as an incessant innovator, unbound by social, cultural and market expectations. His willingness to experiment resulted in the rapid expansion of the parameters of Western Desert Art." (Vanessa Merlino and Luke Scholes, 60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, 2023, p. 56)

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Related artworks
  • Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Water Dreaming, 1972
    Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Water Dreaming, 1972
  • Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Yam Traveling in the Sandhills (Version 2) [formerly Bush Tucker Story], 1971
    Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Yam Traveling in the Sandhills (Version 2) [formerly Bush Tucker Story], 1971
  • Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Big Cave Dreaming with Ceremonial Object [formerly Untitled], 1972
    Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Big Cave Dreaming with Ceremonial Object [formerly Untitled], 1972
  • Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi, Children’s Water Dreaming (Version 2) [formerly Water Story], 1972
    Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi, Children’s Water Dreaming (Version 2) [formerly Water Story], 1972
  • Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Old Man’s Dreamings, 1972
    Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Old Man’s Dreamings, 1972

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