We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of NSW stands.

Title

Kangaroo and Shield People Dreaming at Lake Mackay

1980

Artist

Timmy Payungu Tjapangati

Australia

circa 1940 – 07 May 2000

Language group: Pintupi, Western Desert region

Artist profile

  • Details

    Place where the work was made
    Papunya → Northern Territory → Australia
    Cultural origin
    Papunya Tula Movement
    Date
    1980
    Media category
    Painting
    Materials used
    synthetic polymer paint on canvas
    Dimensions
    187.0 x 155.0 x 3.5 cm stretcher
    Signature & date

    Not signed. Not dated.

    Credit
    Gift of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales 1995
    Location
    Not on display
    Accession number
    484.1995
    Copyright
    © Estate of Timmy Payungu Tjapangati. Licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd

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    Artist information
    Timmy Payungu Tjapangati

    Artist profile

    Works in the collection

    6

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  • About

    This painting depicts two Dreamings and Tjapangati's own homeland along the fringes of Lake MacKay in Western Australia. These two, which are celebrated in a corroboree, are a Kangaroo Dreaming, utilised in the Tingari cycle, and the story of the travelling Kuditchi, or Shield People. The full details of the story are secret but the artist did say that in the Kudutchi corroboree the men sing while the women dance. The cat's-cradle-like pattern around the edge of the painting represents rain travelling from hill to hill. The tracks of the kangaroo travelling from site to site are self-evident. The large pale area in the central part of the picture represents Lake Mackay. The roundels in that area are trees which grow in the lake. The golden-coloured patches are sandhills. The connected roundels and adjoining straight lines represent both soakages and campsites of the mythical Shield People in their travels.

    Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000

  • Places

    Where the work was made

    Papunya

  • Exhibition history

    Shown in 6 exhibitions

  • Bibliography

    Referenced in 8 publications

    • Edmund Capon AM, OBE, Steven Miller, Tony Tuckson, James Scougall, Mollie Gowing, Harry Messel, Craig Brush, Ronald Fine, Alison Fine, Gordon Davies, Rosalind Davies, Christopher Hodges, Helen Eager, Rosemary Gow, Sandra Phillips, Daphne Wallace and Ken Watson, Gamarada, Sydney, 1996, 70.

    • Hetti Perkins, Education Kit - Papunya Tula: genesis and genius, 'Styles - iconographic and minimal', pg. 10-11, Sydney, 2000, 10 (colour illus.).

    • Vivien Johnson and Tim Johnson, The Painted Dream, 1991, 20.

    • Vivien Johnson, Copyrites - Aboriginal Art in the Age of Reproductive Technologies, Sydney, 1996, 43 (colour illus.), 54.

    • Vivien Johnson, Painted Dreams, 'Collecting Western Desert Art - a personal view', pg. 8-13, Sydney, 1995, 8, 16, 17 (colour illus.), 46. plate no. 2

    • Hetti Perkins, Look: 1953-2003 celebrating 50 years, 'When the everyday becomes extraordinary: AGS help acceptance of young urban indigenous artists', pg. 51-53, Sydney, May 2003, 52, 53 (colour illus.).

    • Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink (Editors), Papunya Tula: genesis and genius, Sydney, 2000, 86 (colour illus.), 286-287. no catalogue number

    • Wayne Tunnicliffe and Deborah Edwards, Look, ‘New Australia’, pg. 24-27, Sydney, May 2012, 27.

Other works by Timmy Payungu Tjapangati

See all 6 works