Uta Uta Tjangala b. 1925

Also known as:
  • Uta Uta Jangala
  • Uta Uta Tjungala
  • Wuta Wuta Tjangala
  • Uata Uata Tjangala No 2
Uta Uta was a gardener at the Papunya School, whose friendship with Geoffrey Bardon sparked off the involvement of a dozen other Pintupi men at the very beginning of the painting enterprise at Papunya. Uta Uta later emerged as the grand old man of Pintupi painting at Kintore.
Talk | Version history | Updated Oct. 19, 2011 | Created Jan. 1, 1994
Name
Uta Uta Tjangala
Also known as:
  • Uta Uta Jangala
  • Uta Uta Tjungala
  • Wuta Wuta Tjangala
  • Uata Uata Tjangala No 2
Birth date
c.1925
Death date
14 December 1990
Death place
Alice Springs Hospital, NT
Gender
Male
Residence
  • Muyinnga, west of Kintore, NT
Other Occupation
  • gardener
Active Period
  • c.1925- c.1990
Languages
  • English
Is Indigenous
Yes
Dreaming
  • Carpet Snake
  • Emu
  • Old Man
Initial Record Data Source
  • Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert: A Biographical Dictionary
Copyright
  • Papunya Tula Artists

Born c. 1925 far to the west of Papunya, Uta Uta was part of the original group of painters at Papunya in 1971. At the time, Uta Uta was a gardener in the Papunya School. His friendship with Geoff Bardon, who supplied the men with brushes, paint and board, sparked off the involvement of a dozen other Pintupi men at the very beginning of the painting enterprise at Papunya. Uta Uta emerged in the late ’70s and early ’80s as a master painter on a grand scale. His 1981 painting of the site of Yumari , which has been exhibited in the XVII Bienal de Sao Paulo 1983 and North America in the Dreamings exhibition of 1988-9, was assisted by a team of eleven other artists including Anatjari Tjampitjinpa, Dini Campbell, John Tjakamarra, Kanya Tjapangati, Charlie Tjapangati and Yala Yala Gibson. In 1985 he won the National Aboriginal Art Award. Many of the stories he painted are based on the Tingari cycle – also sites associated with Yumari, and Old Man, Emu and Carpet Snake Dreamings. Like most of the Pintupi living in Papunya, he returned to his homelands in the early ’80s when Kintore was established and settled on his outstation at Muyinnga, west of Kintore. His son Shorty Jackson Tjampitjinpa, who lived in Kintore, also began painting in the late 1980s, depicting the sites around Lake MacDonald where he walked around with his father as a boy.

Writers:
Johnson, Vivien
Date written:
1994
Last updated:
2011
associate of
Anatjari Tjampitjinpa
1927
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Dini Tjampitjinpa Campbell
1940
Artist (Painter)
associate of
John Tjakamarra
1935
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Kanya Tjapangati
1951
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Charlie Tjapangati
1949
Artist (Painter)
parent of
Shorty Tjampitjinpa Jackson
1950
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Geoffrey Bardon
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Yala Yala Gibson
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Shorty Tjampitjinpa Jackson
1950
Artist (Painter)
parent of
Shorty Tjampitjinpa Jackson
1950
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Narputta Nangala Jugadai
1933
Artist (Painter)
relative of
Narputta Nangala Jugadai
1933
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Daisy Napaltjarri Jugadai
1956
Artist (Painter)
relative of
Daisy Napaltjarri Jugadai
1956
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Linda Junkata Napaljarri Syddick
1940
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Anatjari Tjakamarra
1935
Artist (Painter)
associate of
George Tjangala Yapa
1945
Artist (Painter)
associate of
Papunya Tula Artists
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
Yumari
Date
1981
Collections
Dreamings
1988
Exhibition (exhibited at)
None
XVII Bienal de Sao Paulo
1983
Exhibition (exhibited at)
None
Recognitions
National Aboriginal Art Award
1985
Award
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)
  • 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
  • Bardon, Geoff, (1979), Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert, (Place: Rigby)