Title
Love story of a man and the moon
1974
Artist
Charlie Wartuma Tjungurrayi
Australia
circa 1921 – 1999
Language group: Pintupi, Western Desert region
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Details
- Place where the work was made
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Yei Yei Bore
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Papunya
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Northern Territory
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Australia
- Date
- 1974
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- poster paint and PVA glue on threeply
- Dimensions
- 45.5 x 50.5 cm
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1997
- Location
- South Building, lower level 1, 20th-century galleries
- Accession number
- 266.1997
- Copyright
- © Estate of the artist. Licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd
- Artist information
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Charlie Wartuma Tjungurrayi
Works in the collection
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About
Wartuma Tjungurrayi, also known as Charlie, was central to the group of men who began painting at Papunya, Northern Territory, in 1971 and was a founding member of the Aboriginal company Papunya Tula Artists. Tjungurrayi painted consistently from 1971 to 1999 and is often remembered for stating, ’If I don’t paint this story some whitefella might come and steal my Country’.
This comment was no doubt informed by Tjungurrayi’s experiences of living in Papunya: a government settlement designed with the intention of centralising and assimilating Aboriginal people from the surrounding regions, where compliance to European norms was expected. Within this environment, Tjungurrayi and his peers used painting as a means of maintaining culture, remembering tjukurrpa and allaying their longing for home.
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Places
Where the work was made
Yei Yei Bore
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Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
20th-Century galleries, lower level 1 (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023