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Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa
Description
- Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa
- Two Snake Ancestors Dreaming at Karrilwarra
- Bears artist’s name and Papunya Tula catalogue number KW991292
- Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
- 152cm by 122cm
Provenance
Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, catalogue number KW991292
Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Melbourne
Exhibited
Aborigena: Arte australiana contemporanea, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, 29 June-26 August 2001
Desert Art, Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 23 February - 23 June 2002
Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, The Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts, Jerusalem, Israel, 21 October – 19 December 2003
Mythology & Reality, Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art From the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne 2 October 2004 - 30 January 2005
Literature
Achille Bonito Olivia, Aborigena, Arte Australiana Contemporanea, Torino, Palazzo Bricherasio, Electa, Milano 2001, p.49 pl.15, illus.
Achille Bonito Olivia and Gabrielle Pizzi, Mythology and Reality, Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, The Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts, Jerusalem, Israel, 21 October – 19 December 2003, p.49, pl.15, illus.
Geoffrey Bardon, Judith Ryan, Gabrielle Pizzi, Zara Stanhope, Mythology & Reality: Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art From the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2004, p47, illus.
Catalogue Note
In 2000 Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa won the 17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, with a painting executed in the same year and illustrating the same Dreaming as in this work. In 1999 he retired as Chairman of the Papunya Tula Artists, and produced some of his most acclaimed paintings. “Kenny is a perfectionist when it comes to painting. He works slowly and carefully on his canvases, delicate precise lines in gentle zigzags of subtle earth tones, whose impact is mesmerising. He takes pride in looking after his paint and brushes ‘like the old artists’” (ibid, 2008)
The accompanying certificate reads, “This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole and soakage water site of Karrilwarra, west of the Kiwirrkura Community. In mythological times Two Snake Ancestors, one male and the other female, travelled to this site from far in the east, passing on the south side of Lake Mackay, then continuing on to Karrilwarra. They later travelled further west. This mythology forms part of the Tingari Cycle. Since events associated with the Tingari Cycle are of a secret nature no further detail was given. Generally, the Tingari are a group of mythical characters of the Dreaming who travelled over vast stretches of the country, performing rituals and creating and shaping particular sites. The Tingari Men were usually followed by Tingari Women and accompanied by novices and their travels and adventures are enshrined in a number of song cycles. These mythologies form part of the teachings of the post initiatory youths today as well as providing explanations for contemporary customs.”