Arrangi Dingo Dreaming

Artist's Auction Record:

 

 

Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula (Jupurrula) was born in 1925 at Minjilpirri, an area north west of Illipili and south of Lake Mackay. Close by is his major dreaming site Tjilkari. The son of mixed parents, his mother was of Luritja/ Warlpiri/Pintupi descent and his father Luritja/Warlpiri. Johnny was raised in a traditional manner, living an orthodox life style in the desert and never attending European schools. He is of the Luritja language group and was initiated into manhood and learned his dreamings during his family’s stay at a mission in Hermannsburg.

Johnny can recollect his first contact with Europeans, remembering his fearful response when witnessing an aircraft fly over his land as a young boy. His people believed the aeroplane to be a ‘marnu’ or devil. At a later date, his people came into contact with camels for the first time and again hid in fright as they recognised the beasts as being evil.

All of that is a far cry from the sophisticated auction rooms of Sotheby’s in Melbourne where, in July 1997, his painting ‘Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa’ changed hands for a record $206,000. Three years later the same painting set another record in its resale at Sotheby's for $486 500. When he sold the painting at Papunya 25 years previously he received just $150 and remembers this only in terms of the food which it bought at the time. Interviewed in 1997 Johnny claimed, ‘I come from the bush. We dont know money’. From partial obscurity, ‘Johnnny W’, as he is affectionately known, became a figure to be reckoned with in the history of Australian art. Well before that time, however, the National Gallery of Australia had recognised his position in the scheme of Aboriginal art. In 1984, James Mollison, Director of the gallery claimed that their painting by Johnny W (the gallery’s first purchase of a western desert painting) was ‘the finest abstract art ever produced in this country’. Perhaps Mollison’s boastful claim had its effect on the price paid at Sotheby’s thirteen years later.

The Desert art movement was no longer ‘emerging’; the sale of ‘Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa’ had rivetted the attention of collectors and investors confirming the promise and potential it had displayed over the past two decades. At the same time this sale offered towering hopes for the future. Perhaps it was an abberation - one of those spectacular quirks thrown up by auction houses - but the sale, just six months later, of an early painting by Billy Stockman for $200,000 seemed to prove otherwise. A sale which predeeded both of those was again at Sotheby’s and saw an early Papunya work, ‘A Cave Dreaming’, by Anatjari Tjakamarra go for $74, 570 in June 1996.

Between 1971 and 1972 there were some 500 paintings made and sold at the Papunya community. These are the paintings which collectors prize most highly, obviously because of their historical significance.

Certainly these were all paintings from a particular moment and particular place, but they were made by a fascinating band of nomadic tribesmen who in western terminology metamorphosed quite rapidly into ‘master’ painters. This was a talented and productive ‘mob’. Johnny Warungkula Tjupurrala proved to be outstanding amongst them because of his innovatory approach and his delicate technique. A significant group of the artists from that time continue to paint in the late 1990’s.

Johnny Warungkula Tjuppurulla’s painting career began after a long turn at labouring, his efforts contributing to the development of roads, airstrips and settlements in areas such as Haasts Bluff, Mt Leibig, Yuendumu and Mt Wedge. In return for his work building roads, shovelling dirt and felling trees he was remunerated in the form of consumable goods, ‘tucker’ (as he calls it) - flour, tea, sugar, fresh vegetables and tobacco.

Before the bulk of the Haasts Bluff population were moved to Papunya in 1960, Johnny was selected along with Nosepeg Tjupurullaas Aboriginal representative to meet the Queen. After settling in Papunya Johnny served on the Papunya Council with Mick Namarari (qv), Limpi Tjapangati and Kingsley Tjungarrayi.