Timmy Payungka Japangardi

DOB: 1942
Born: pARAYILPIL
DECEASED 2000

About Artist:
Born c.1938 at Parayirpilynga just west of Central Lake Mackay. The family came eastwards to the Haasts Bluff area in search of rations of flour and tea when Timmy was a child. Later, the family travelled back to Pintupi territory.

Contacted in 1962 whilst camped at Yarrana Rockhole due west of Kintore with his wife and young child, Timmy was among the first group of Pintupi to be brought into the newly established settlement of Papunya. Part of the original group of painters at Papunya in 1971, he moved to Kintore when it was established in 1981 and further to the north. He paints Dancing Women, Dingo, Snake, Water Dreaming, from this region.

A key ritual figure since the late 1970's, he was in the forefront of moves to establish the settlement at Kiwwirrkura where he now lives. Timmy is also one of the custodians for the important claypan site of Parrayingi, Before his people encountered white man they would gather at this site after the rains.


Major collections:

Artbank, Sydney;
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth;
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin;
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne;
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;
South Australian Museum, Adelaide;
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth;
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A;
Jinta Desert Art Collection Sydney.


Selected exhibitions:

1974: Anvil Art Gallery, Albury
1983: Mori Gallery, Sydney
1984: Papunya and Beyond, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1988: Dreamings the Art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York. 1989, Papunya Tula: Contemporary Paintings from Australia's Western Desert, John Weber Gallery, New York, USA.
1989: The Sixth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1989: A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art]
1990: l'ete Australien a' Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gallery, Montpellier, France. 1991, Canvas and Bark, South Australian Museum, Adelaide.
1990: The Seventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1991/92: Friendly Country, Friendly People, Touring Exhibition, through Araluen Centre, Alice Springs.
1992: Tjukurrpa, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Basel.
1993: Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA
1994: Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria;
1996: Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs;
1999: 'Tjinytjlpa' Embassy of Australia, Washington, USA;
1999: 'Indigenous Art of the Dreamtime' foyer of United Nations building, New York, Aboriginal Galleries of Australia, Jinta Desert Art.
2011: 'Origins of Western Desert Art: Tjukurrtjanu', The Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victory, Melbourne


Select bibliographies:

Bardon, G., 1979, Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert, Rigby, Adelaide. (C) Bardon, G., 1991, Papunya Tula Art of the Western Desert, McPhee Gribble, Ringwood, Victoria. (C) Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria. Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales. (C) Sutton, P. (ed.), 1988, Dreamings: the Art of Aboriginal Australia, Viking, Ringwood, Victoria. (C) Sydney Morning Herald, 'Record damages for black painters', p.4. Wed. December 14, 1994. 1993, Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), exhib. cat., Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.(C)


Auction records:

Title: Cave Story, 1971
Details: Synthetic polymer paint on composition board, 46 x 30.5 cm
Auction Price: $79,500
Auction House: Sotheby's Australia, Important Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, 28/06/1999, Lot No. 25

Timmy Payungka has had 97 works listed from the 1970's onwards.