Anatjari Tjampitjinpa b. 1927

Also known as:
  • Anitjari Jampijinpa
  • Anatjari No. 1
  • Artist (Painter)
A pioneering painter with Papunya Tula Artists, and influential in the spread of painting to Balgo WA. His work featured in landmark exhibitions, such as "Dreamings: Art of Aboriginal Australia" which toured the USA (1988-1989), and is represented in major national and international collections.
Talk | Version history | Updated Oct. 19, 2011 | Created Jan. 1, 1994
Name
Anatjari Tjampitjinpa
Also known as:
  • Anitjari Jampijinpa
  • Anatjari No. 1
Birth date
c.1927
Death date
1999
Death place
None
Gender
Male
Roles
  • Artist (Painter)
Residence
  • Balgo (Balgo Hill), WA
  • Kintore, NT
  • Amunturangu (Mt Liebig), NT
  • Inyaling (Inyalinga), NT
  • Yai Yai
  • c.1927- Jupiter Well, WA (south of )
  • c.1964- Papunya, NT
  • 1989- 1999 Kiwirrkura, WA
Active Period
  • c.1976- c.1999
Languages
  • English
Is Indigenous
Yes
Heritage Country
  • South of Jupiter Well, WA
Initial Record Data Source
  • Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert: A Biographical Dictionary
Copyright
  • Papunya Tula Artists, NT

Anatjari and his family were brought out of the desert into Papunya by the NT Welfare Branch patrols in 1964. The patrol’s meeting with Anatjari the previous year was the subject of Douglas Lockwood’s 1964 book, The Lizard Eaters . Anatjari joined Papunya Tula artists in the mid ’70s, and for the next two and a half decades (c. 1976-1999) was one the company’s most consistent and dedicated painters. His country, where he grew up and spent the first forty years of his life, lay across the NT border in WA, south of Jupiter Well. While in Balgo visiting relatives, Anatjari instructed people about painting with canvas and acrylics, including his younger brother, Dini Campbell , who later moved to Kintore and began painting for Papunya Tula Artists. Anatjari’s son Ray James also took up painting, as did George Yapa Yapa , who was raised by Anatjari after his father’s death. Anatjari’s work was shown in Face of the Centre , National Gallery of Victoria 1985, the Asia Society’s Dreamings: Art of Aboriginal Australia exhibition and many other group exhibitions of Papunya Tula Artists. The artist spent the last decade of his life in Kiwirrkura WA.

Writers:
Johnson, Vivien Note: primary biographer
Date written:
1994
Last updated:
2011
associate of
Dini Tjampitjinpa Campbell
1940
Artist (Painter)
brother; artist
associate of
George Tjangala Yapa
1945
Artist (Painter)
adopted son; artist
sibling of
Dini Tjampitjinpa Campbell
1940
Artist (Painter)
parent of
George Tjangala Yapa
1945
Artist (Painter)
adopted
parent of
Ray James
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Uta Uta Tjangala
1925
parent of
George Tjangala Yapa
1945
Artist (Painter)
adopted
associate of
Papunya Tula Artists
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
Collections
1989
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
Dreamings: Art of Aboriginal Australia
1988- 1989
Exhibition (exhibited at)
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Adelaide
Face of the Centre
1985
Exhibition (exhibited at)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC
Citations:
  • Bardon, Geoffrey and Bardon, James, (2004), Papunya: A Place Made After the Story; The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, (Place: Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, VIC ISBN-10 : 0-522-85110-X / ISBN-13: 978-0522851106)
  • Lockwood, Douglas, (1964), The Lizard Eaters, (Place: Cassell Australia, Melbourne)
  • Johnson, V., (2008), Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists, (Place: IAD Press, Alice Springs, NT ISBN 978 1 86465 090 7url: http://www/iadpress.com) http://www.iadpress.com