Papunya Tjupi Arts | USA 2020

papunya tjupi artists twenty twenty usa

That’s the way it works when you do painting.

I’m living through that story each time; lightning flashes everywhere, and everywhere that tali.”

- Charlotte Phillipus.

Carbiene McDonald Charlotte Philllipus Napurrula Doris Bush Nungurrayi Kumanjayi Nangala (Tilau) Mona Nangala Martha McDonald Napaltjarri Maureen Poulson Napangarti Watson Corby New Works from Maningrida Arts & Culture Harvey Art Projects |Sun Valley USA Opposite Page: Artists out in country near Papunya Photo credit: CDM Papunya Tjupi Artists 2019

Honey Ant Dreaming Culture & Country It was in the early 1970s at Papunya that the fortuitous conjunction of a young schoolteacher, some senior Aboriginal lawmen, and a plan to paint a school mural gave rise to what became the Western Desert painting movement. The story of Geoffrey Bardon and the canon of first-generation desert painters is part of Indigenous art history. What is less well known is that Papunya did not have a dedicated painting space, an art center as we understand it today, until 2007.

Today Papunya is home to Papunya Tjupi Artists, a flourishing not-for-profit community arts enterprise that supports a new generation of artists who have established their own unique identity and artistic practice based on the legacy of their forefathers. The center’s artists, who range in age from 30 to 90, have found a vocabulary with which they continue to experiment and expand, and the Papunya Tjupi trademark is distinguishing itself from Papunya Tula in style, scale and originality.

Papunya Tjupi currently services close to 150 artists from Papunya and surrounding outstations, with a recent influx of emerging male artists following the construction of a purpose built Men’s Studio in 2019. Central to Papunya Tjupi is the understanding that painting is an important part of culture and connection to country, and that the teaching and passing of knowledge is what keeps the community’s future strong. The Papunya Tjupi artists are a proud people who openly share their art and stories. The regions infamous Honey Ant Dreaming is still central to the story of these desert painters: the tjupi (honey ant) travelled through here and then headed east where it manifested as the Tjupi hills.

Over the past 12 years the art center has seen a strong collective of women artists; Charlotte Phillipus Napurrula, Doris Bush Nungarrayi, Martha McDonald Napaltjarri, Kumanjayi Nanagal (Tilau), Mona Nangala, Maureen Poulson. Charlotte, Chairperson of Papunya Tjupi and daughter of Papunya painter Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, has developed a unique style of painting Kalipinypa Water Dreaming that focuses on the Tali (sand) aspect of her country: “Kalipinypa is a water dreaming and it’s what I paint, but it’s really all about the tali (sand hills) that surround that country.

I can see it in my eyes, those pictures come into my mind.

Now that we’re talking about it I can see it in my head.

These pictures come up in my mind when I’m painting; of the lightning flashing everywhere and the sand hills across the desert

That’s the way it works when you do painting. I’m living through that story each time; lightning flashes everywhere, and everywhere that tali.” - Charlotte Phillipus.

The scared site of Kalipinypa is depicted by several artists including Mona Nangala, Maureen Poulson Napangarti and Watson Corby. As a collective, the artists are constantly paying homage to the way that many artists from the desert develop deeply personal ways to depict and interpret the same country.

Martha MacDonald Napaltjarri has a long history of painting. Her father, renowned Papunya painter Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi’s country Walukuritji, is central to her work where she recreates dominant imagery in her own unique style. Senior law and culture woman Kumanjayi Nangala (Tilau), paints the great Water Dreaming site of Mikantji. This intimate knowledge of country and ceremony empowers her bold lyrical and expressive paintings depicting the topography of hills and creeks evoking the ebb and flow of water.

Finally, Doris Bush is an expressive storyteller and often paints memories, stories and dreams from her life; eating, hunting and swimming with her friends and family in the bush.

This celebrated and commanding group of women artists incorporated Papunya Tjupi in 2007. The art center, however, has historically had a limited capacity to support male members of the community interested in a career in the arts, due in large part to a lack of culturally appropriate infrastructure. The recent opening of the men’s painting space at Papunya Tjupi is the first space for men in Papunya to come together to make art in over fifty years.

Carbiene McDonald Tjangala and Watson Corby are today the key artists in this new men’s art and cultural revival movement. Watson, who has painted at the art center since it’s inception is now coming into his own as a leader of the men’s art and culture revival movement. Watson’s new found confidence and experimentation is evident in his new depictions of ‘Kalipinypa’, one of which is on display in this body of work. Unlike Watson, Carbiene has only just began painting, having picked up a paint brush for the first time in September 2018. Carbiene’s love for paint and color has seen him catapulted as one of the centers’rising stars -- in just one year he was awarded the prestigious landscape prize ‘The Hadley’s Art Prize’.

Harvey Art Projects gratefully acknowledges the artists of Papunya Tjupi in bringing this wonderful debut exhibiton to the USA. We also thank art center manager Emma Collard in assiting us in mounting this very special show.

Charlotte Phillipus Napurrula, Kalipinypa 48� x 60� acrylic on Belgian linen, catalog #625-19

Maureen Poulson Napangarti, Kapi Tjukurrpa 48� x 60� acrylic on Beligian linen, catalog #60-17

Mona Nangala, Tali- Papunya Tjukurrpa 36� x 60� acrylic on Belgian linen, catalog #299-19

Kumanjayi Nangala (Tilau), Mikantji 36� x 30� acrylic on Belgian Linen, catalog #437-19

Watson Corby, Kalipinypa Tjukurrpa 48” x 60” acrylic on Belgian linen, catalog #449-19

Kumanjayi Nangala (Tilau), Mikantji 42� x 72� acrylic on Belgian linen, catalog #539-17

Maureen Poulson Napangarti, Kapi Tjukurrpa 48� x 60� acrylic on Belgian linen, catalog #60-17

Doris Bush Nungurrayi, Wilinyi Ikuntiji 48” x 72” acrylic on Belgian linen, catalog #23-18

Carbiene Tjangala Four Dreamings 48� x 28� acrylic on Belgian linen catalog #436-19

Doris Bush Nungurrayi Wilinyi Ikuntiji 48” x 72” acrylic on Belgian linen catalog #133-18

JECTS.COM On view February - March 2020 Harvey Art Projects 659 Sun Valley Road | Ketchum ID USA info@harveyartprojects.com | 208.309.8676 All images courtesy Papunya Tjupi Arts 2020 Copyright HAP USA 2020