Tingari Dreaming at Karrkurritinytja
Simon TJAKAMARRA: artist
Simon Tjakamarra was the younger brother of Anatjari Tjakamarra, and he also painted in the early days of the Papunya Tula art movement. In the early 1980s he relocated to Walungurru and began painting regularly for Papunya Tula Artists. His untimely death cut short a promising career. His work displays a consistency and brilliance of composition, usually focusing on the Tingari matrix.
While Papunya Tula Paintings have become increasingly distanced stylistically from their ceremonial origins, one feature has remained constant - the Tingari. Symbolising the ancestral journeys of men and women whose creative deeds may be known only to a select few, the imagery of linked concentric circles has come to be understood as the classic iconography of the Pintupi painters. In the 1980s, the works of artists such as Simon Tjakamarra devolved into highly distinive interpretations of the Tingari template. His immaculate rendering of the design endows his works with a distinctive undulating rhythm.
Tingari Dreaming at Karrkurritinytja depicts a story associated with the site of Karrkurritinytja, near the Kintore Ranges in central Australia Since the story is associated with the secret-sacred ceremonies of the Tingari Men, no further information has been revealed. It can be noted, however, that in their travels over vast areas of the desert regions, they created the landscape and instructed the post-initiatory youths with whom they were travelling in the higher education undergone by Aboriginal men of the region. 1.
1. Perkins, Hetti & Fink, Hannah 'Genesis and Genius: Papunya Tula' (Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000) p.298.
While Papunya Tula Paintings have become increasingly distanced stylistically from their ceremonial origins, one feature has remained constant - the Tingari. Symbolising the ancestral journeys of men and women whose creative deeds may be known only to a select few, the imagery of linked concentric circles has come to be understood as the classic iconography of the Pintupi painters. In the 1980s, the works of artists such as Simon Tjakamarra devolved into highly distinive interpretations of the Tingari template. His immaculate rendering of the design endows his works with a distinctive undulating rhythm.
Tingari Dreaming at Karrkurritinytja depicts a story associated with the site of Karrkurritinytja, near the Kintore Ranges in central Australia Since the story is associated with the secret-sacred ceremonies of the Tingari Men, no further information has been revealed. It can be noted, however, that in their travels over vast areas of the desert regions, they created the landscape and instructed the post-initiatory youths with whom they were travelling in the higher education undergone by Aboriginal men of the region. 1.
1. Perkins, Hetti & Fink, Hannah 'Genesis and Genius: Papunya Tula' (Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000) p.298.
Title
Tingari Dreaming at Karrkurritinytja
Artist/Maker and role
Simon TJAKAMARRA: artist
Date
1986
Medium
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Measurements
274 x 213.3 cm (sight)
Credit line
Purchased 1986
© Licenced by Aboringinal Artists Agency Ltd
The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Accession number
1986/0186