Kaapa Tjampitjinpa
Anmatyarre / Arrernte people NT 1926-1989
Flying Ants Dreaming
Acrylic on canvas
213 x 263 cm
BCEC Art Collection
Kaapa Tjampitjinpa was the principal artist on the Papunya school mural – the Honey Ant Dreaming of 1971 – which marked the beginning of the Papunya Tula art movement. Kaapa was among the most significant figures in Australian art and was a savvy interpreter of Western Desert traditions into new European media and ways. He became the first chairman of Papunya Tula Artists cooperative upon its establishment in 1971.
The Wantunuma or Flying Ants Dreaming at Mikantiji, west of Yuendemu, is depicted in this painting. The concentric circles indicate the holes from which the ants emerge after the rain. Kaapa, along with other Anmatyerre artists including Clifford Possum, pioneered this style of painting where fields of interlocking dotted colours created a patchwork, like a high colour camouflage, that evokes the shifting types of vegetation across Country.