The earthy palette utilised by the artist combine with an array of delicate lines that seem to quiver in movement across the canvas, conjuring a body of work that is at once memorable and alluring.
Born near Kiwirrkurra circa 1950, Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa’s first years of life were spent travelling with his family throughout Wilkinkarra lands. Forcibly relocated by welfare patrol to Papunya in 1963, Tjampitjinpa continued to move throughout his life, settling in the Balgo Hills throughout the 1970s, then back to Papunya and later to the Intinti outstation west of Kintore. It was in Papunya throughout the late 1980s when Tjampitjinpa’s painting career began, later leading to his position as Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists for some years.
The artist’s works depict his ancestral lands of Kiwirrkurra as well as his father’s Country Yirrukurlu, an area south of the Pollock Hills. Thin, wavering lines, almost hypnotic in their composition, portray Tali Tjuta (Sand Hills Many) around the area of Kiwirrkurra that are integral to sacred Tingari initiation right ceremonies. The linear geometry of such works also replicates those used for decorating shields, boomerangs and tjuringa. Laden with deep ancestral meaning, Tjampitjinpa’s works are as visually striking as they are deeply reminiscent of the culture of the lands of which they depict. The earthy palette utilised by the artist combine with an array of delicate lines that seem to quiver in movement across the canvas, conjuring a body of work that is at once memorable and alluring.