PURKITJI, 2003

Private Exhibition of Important Aboriginal Art
Melbourne
11 October 2011
37

BOXER MILNER TJAMPITJIN

(c.1934 - 2009)
PURKITJI, 2003

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

118.0 x 79.0 cm

inscribed verso: artist's name, size and Warlayirti Artists cat. 2042/03

Provenance

Warlayirti Artists, Balgo Hills
Private collection, Melbourne

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Warlayirti Artists

 

Catalogue text

Boxer Milner Tjampitjin was born at Matwanangu, near Sturt Creek, south west of Billiluna in Western Australia. As a younger man, Boxer worked around this area as a stockman, building up his intimate knowledge of the Sturt Creek area.

Tjampitjin was a senior lawman who with his two brothers was custodian for the Dreaming stories and songs of this country. The artist lived and worked in Billiluna and began painting for Warlayirti Artists in 1989 when his work was first exhibited in Balgo group exhibitions. His special and sacred country Purkitji country was a major flood plain for Sturt Creek, every summer after the rains, and was the source of Tjampitjin's iconography. Boxer often depicted the white'milk water' that runs after rain has fallen in the clay soils upstream of Billiluna. His work included the depiction of rainbows, rain clouds and the temporary creeks that are formed during the wet season. His first solo exhibition was held at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne in 2000. His work was included in Images of Power: Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, 1993 and Colour Power: Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, 2004-05. He died at the Fragile Aged Home in Halls Creek on 23 June 2009.