Johnny Warrangkula

Artville Artist of the day: Tjupurrula Johnny Warrangkula 

Title: Dingo Dreaming
Year: 1973
Medium: synthetic polymer paint on composition board
Size: 78 x 61 cm. (30.7 x 24 in.)

Johnny Warrangkula was born in 1925 at Minjilpirri, located south of Lake Mackay and northwest of Illpili. Nearby are two major Dreaming sites; Tijari located north of the Sandy Blight Junction, Western Australia and Kalipimpinpa, situated north-west of the Sandy Blight Junction. Johnny’s mother was of mixed Luritja/Walpiri/Pintupi descent and his father was Luritja/Walpiri. Johnny had a traditional bush childhood with no formal education in western schools. As a boy, Johnny remembers hiding from planes flying overhead that his people called ‘mamu’. Like many Aboriginal families at the time, Johnny and his family moved to Hermannsburg, where a mission had been established. At Hermannsburg, Johnny went through the traditional Aboriginal Law Ceremonies of initiation ‘to become a man’. At Hermannsburg, Johnny also worked as a labourer, digging the foundation for a new airport. The family moved to Haasts Bluff, where Johnny continued his labouring work, helping to build a new airport at Haasts Bluff as well as building roads to Mt.Liebig, Yuendumu and Mt.Wedge. As settlements were established, Johnny moved between various labouring jobs. Payment for his work was always in the form of ‘tucker’ or food, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sugar, tea and tobacco. Johnny and his family moved from Haasts Bluff to Papunya in 1960.Here a new Aboriginal settlement had been built.

During the Queen’s visit in 1954, Nosepeg Tjupurulla and Johnny Warrangkula were chosen as the Aboriginal representatives to meet the monarch. Whilst Johnny was serving on the Papunya Council with Mick Namarai, Kingsley Tjungarrayi and Limpi Tjapangati, he met a teacher, Geoffrey Bardon. Geoffrey supplied art materials at the request of the Papunya Council members, who were keen to record their stories on a permanent medium. This decision had historical implications as the dot – art movement was born. Geoffrey Bardon referred to Johnny’s paintings as ‘tremendous illusions’ created by Johnny’s personal style of layers of dots. Johnny became known as a major artist in the Aboriginal art movement. In 1984, the Sydney Morning Herald published a photograph of the Director of the Australian National Gallery, James Mollison, next to a work by Johnny Warrangkula. James Mollison declared the work of Papunya Artists to be ‘the finest abstract art ever produced in this country’.

Courtesy: www.artnet.com
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