GEORGE (TJAMPU) TJAPALTJARRI | KARPADI

Painted at Kiwirrkurra in 2002, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory

The Helen Read Collection, France

Luminous: Contemporary Art From The Western Desert, travelling exhibition, 2005 - 2007; Manly Art Gallery & Museum, 17 June - 24 July 2005; Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, 19 August - 2 October 2005; La Trobe Regional Gallery, 29 October - 4 December 2005; Flinders University Art Museum, 15 December 2005 - 12 February 2006; Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, 24 March - 7 May 2006; Manning Regional Art Gallery, 13 June - 25 July 2006; Grafton Regional Art Gallery, 16 August - 10 September 2006; Tamworth Regional Gallery, 11 November 2006 - 4 February 2007; Embassies: The Australian Embassy in Paris 10 October 2012 - 6th May 2013

George Tjampu Tjapaltjarri began painting for the Papunya Tula Artists cooperative in 1982, at about the same time he first met Helen Read, the vendor of Karpadi, 2002. At the time he was a skilled health worker in the Pintupi Homelands Health Service that Read had joined as a pilot, nurse and midwife. They would fly between the Walungurru (Kintore) and Kiwirrkurra communities over country that, according to Read, ‘he didn’t need a plane to see’ and an enduring relationship ensued.

Years later, after she had acquired the painting, Read returned to Kiwirrkurra where Tjapaltjarri described the creation narrative that underscores the work. ‘That’s Karpadi’, he said, ‘ Karpadi is the creation snake which travelled underground in the beginning of time from east to west across the land, under and over the country creating the world, animals, everything we know…Here he is, lying in the sand, camouflaged, resting.’

Rhythm and movement are the hallmarks of Tjapaltjarri’s paintings. As Read says, ‘an onlooker might also feel the multiple angles in the picture, cast like a net, speak of our existence trapped in complete connectivity. And the sharp and soft, flat and undulating cusps anchoring changes in direction [of the lines] ignite a reference to time.’

A related painting by the artist from 2004 is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 

Wally Caruana

Sotheby's would also like to thank Helen Read for her contribution to this text.