Joseph Jurra Tjapaltjarri
Pintupi people NT/WA c.1953
Kunawirri 1987
Acrylic on linen
212.5 x 211 cm
BCEC Art Collection
Joseph Jurra Tjapaltjarri was born near what is now Kiwirrkura, Western Australia, and began painting with the Papunya Tula artists in the mid-1980s, as the Papunya Tula artists moved from small board to large and dynamic paintings on canvas. He quickly gained recognition as one of the leading second‑generation Pintupi painters, known for his restrained, rhythmic compositions depicting Tingari Dreaming narratives and ancestral movements across Country.
Kunawirri is a sacred place in Pintupi Country, related to the Tingari Dreamings that describe the creative journeys of the first great ancestors whose actions shaped the Western Desert landscape both physically and culturally. The repeated concentric circles here relate to the many sites these ancestors stopped at on their travels and evoke a landscape of great cultural energy, far removed from ‘dead heart’ ideologies that have long dominated Australia’s understanding of its arid regions.
Kunawirri can be viewed on Plaza Level.