Anatjari Tjampitjinpa

Painted for Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs in 1986 (catalogue number AT860336)

Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne

Private Collection, Melbourne

Acquired from the above by the present owner with the assistance of Tim Klingender Fine Art, Sydney

Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink (eds), Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Sydney, 2000, p. 101

Gabrielle Pizzi at Roar Studios, Fitzroy, Aboriginal Paintings from the Central Australian Desert, July 22 - August 10, 1986

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Images of Spirituality in Australian Art, December 1, 1988 to June 30, 1989

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, August 18 – November 11, 2000

The Papunya Tula Artists certificate accompanying the painting reads: This painting depicts designs associated with the secret-sacred Tingari ceremonies at the site of Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay). In mythological times a large group of men, women and children travelled to this site from the west. They had passed through the sites of Kiwikurra, Walla Walla and Uti before travelling to Lake Mackay. While at Lake Mackay the men were to perform the Tingari ceremonies. These are associated with the post- initiatory instruction in the higher education undergone by the Aboriginal Men of the region.

 The tall, narrow shape of the canvas is comparable to, but larger than, paintings made in the very first years of the acrylic painting movement at Papunya, in the early 1970s, when artists made painting supports from discarded sections of building materials. These early elongated boards were referred to as ‘panel paintings.’ In turn, the proportions of panel paintings have affinities with those of the elongated ovoid forms of a desert shields and ritual objects which artists were accustomed to painting in traditional circumstances.