UNTITLED (WALA WALA ROCKHOLE), 1995
GEORGE TJUNGURRAYI
synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen
153.5 x 122.5 cm
bears inscription verso: artist’s name, size and Papunya Tula Artists cat. GT950678
Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Collection of Willam Nuttall and Annette Reeves, Melbourne
Bonhams, Sydney, 28 May 2012, lot 25
Private collection, Melbourne
12th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, August 1995
George Tjungurrayi produced his first paintings at Papunya in 1976 after which he worked only occasionally. With the establishment of Walungurru (Kintore) in the early 1980s, Tjungurrayi began to focus upon his artistic practice when he began painting classic Pintupi designs of circles joined by lines. In the 1990s Tjungurrayi dispensed with traditional iconographic elements altogether in favour of the tight, parallel lines and forms that allude to the rhythm of the landscape and the finely fluted carving of western desert shields.
Untitled (Wala Wala Rockhole), 1995 is a finely balanced painting and the repeated concentric lines create a mesmerising surface for the viewer. Located northwest of the Pintupi community at Kiwirrkurra, Wala Wala rockhole is the birthplace of the artist and is a ceremonial site associated with the teachings of the Tingari, the mythical ancestors who travelled across country naming places and bestowing law.