Ronnie Tjampitjinpa

Ronnie Tjampitjinpa was born some time around 1943 in the region near Muyinnga, about 100 km west of the Kintore Ranges in Western Australia (and approximately 500 km west of Alice Springs). His family travelled extensively across Pintupi territory, moving through this region and also around Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay) which straddles the Western Australia – Northern Territory border. He was initiated into Aboriginal Law at Yumari, near his birthplace.

Ronnie originally came in from the bush at Yuendumu and later joined relatives living in Papunya, where he worked as a labourer, helping with the fencing of the airfield.

He started painting around 1971 at the time that the desert art movement began in Papunya and over several years he moved between Papunya, Yuendumu and Mt Doreen Station. Ronnie’s work follows the Pintupi style of strong circles joined together by connecting lines relating to the people, country and the Dreamtime.

The primary images in Ronnie’s work are based on the Tingari Cycle which is a secret song cycle sacred to initiated men. The Tingari are Dreamtime Beings who travelled across the landscape performing ceremonies to create and shape the country associated with Dreaming sites. The Tingari ancestors gathered at these sites for Maliera (initiation) ceremonies. The sites take the form of, and are located at, significant rock-holes, sand hills, sacred mountains and water soakages in the western desert.

Tingari may be poetically interpreted as song-line paintings relating to the songs (of the people) and creation stories (of places) in Pintupi mythology. Ronnie can be considered amongst the first wave of artists effectively linking such ancient stories with modern mediums.

During his time at Papunya Ronnie talked of returning to his traditional country. This became possible when Kintore was established in 1981 and Ronnie moved there with his family shortly afterwards.

He has been a committed artist since his earliest involvement with the central desert art movement and has since emerged as one of the region’s major painters. Today, Ronnie remains an important influence on a new generation of painters.

Ronnie’s works first appeared in Papunya Tula exhibitions during the 1970s, then in commercial art galleries in Sydney and Melbourne throughout the 1980s, including successive exhibitions at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi from 1987 to 1990. In 1988, he won the Alice Springs Art Prize and he had his first solo exhibition in Melbourne in 1989.

The artist was later selected for inclusion in major representative Aboriginal survey shows including: Flash Pictures at the Australian National Gallery; Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami; and other noteworthy exhibitions in Paris, Moscow, St Petersburg, Düsseldorf and Munich.

EXHIBITIONS:
2017 Gems from the Stockroom, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2015 Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Art Gallery of New South Wales
2011 Tjukurrtjanu- Origins of Western Desert Art, National Gallery of
Victoria.
2009 Size Matters, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2009 The Dreamers, Art Gallery of NSW.
2008 From the air, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane, QLD.
2004 DREAMTIME: The Dark and The Light, Sammlung Essl, Austria.
2003 Bushfire, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane QLD.
2001 Spirit & Vision, Sammlung Essl, Austria.
2000 Aboriginal Lawman- Masterworks, Australian Exhibition Centre, Chicago, U.S.A.
2000 Papunya Tula Genesis and Genius, Australia Gallery, NSW.
2000 Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne VIC.
1999 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, U.S.A.
1999 Flinders Art Museum, Flinders University, Adelaide SA.
1999 Spirit Country, San Francisco/ Touring.
1998 Jinta Gallery, Sydney.
1996 Twenty Five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide, SA.
1995 Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne VIC.” 2001, 2003 Chapel off Chapel Gallery, Me
1994 Yiribana, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
1994 Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria.
1994 Dreamings – Tjukurrpa: Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert; The Donald Kahn collection, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich
1994 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition,
Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1994 The Eleventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition,
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1994 Australian Heritage Commission National Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra.
1993 Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga,Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach,Qld
1993 Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central
Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA
1993 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition,
Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1992 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition,
Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1992 The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1991 The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition,
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1990 National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome
1991 Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia
1991 Australian Aboriginal Art from the Collection of Donald Kahn, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA
1991 Aboriginal Paintings from the Desert, Union of Soviet Artists
Gallery, Moscow and Museum of Ethnographic Art, St. Petersburg,Russia.
1990 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
1990 Paintings from the Desert, Contemporary Aboriginal
Paintings, Plimsoll Gallery, Centre for the Arts, Hobart, Tasmania
1990 The Seventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition,
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1989 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
1989 Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia
1988 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
1987 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
1986 Roar Studios, Melbourne.
1983 Mori Gallery, Sydney.

COLLECTIONS:
Artbank, Sydney.
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
Campbelltown City Art Gallery
Donald Kahn collection, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami.
Medibank Private Collection
Musee des Arts Africans et Oceaniens, Paris.
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Supreme Court of Northern Territory, Darwin.

Artworks