BORN: C 1943
REGION: WALUNGURRU (KINTORE), ININTI, ALICE SPRINGS-NORTHERN TERRITORY
LANUGUAGE GROUP: PINTUPI
View Ronnie’s artwork here
Born at Tjiturrunya west of Kintore Ranges in Western Australia, Ronnie was initiated into manhood in Winparku, near Lake Mackay. He lived a traditional, semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle at Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay), a vast salt lake in the Gibson Desert, as a child and after prolonged droughts in the 1950s, he and his family moved, first to Haasts Bluff, then to Papunya. His life during the 1970s and 80s consisted of travelling throughout the north-western desert area, between Yuendumu and Papunya, whilst working as a fencer and labourer.
Ronnie Tjampitjinpa commenced painting in about 1975 after he observed the Papunya movement. Since moving to Walungurru, in the early 1980s, he has emerged as one of Papunya Tula’s major artists.
His artistic career was boosted by a 1988 win of the Alice Prize, and he exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas during the 1990s. A long time member of Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd, he has also been chair of the company and freelanced with a number of private dealers and galleries.
Ronnie’s art is a good representation of the characteristic Pintupi style: repetition of forms, which are geometric, simple and bold, and pigments which are often restricted to four basic colours of black, red, yellow and white. But Ronnie experiments with other colours as well.
His career has been long and fruitful; Ronnie is one of the principal portrayers of the iconography of the ancient Tingari story in a contemporary medium. He has developed his depiction of this subject into a highly individual and recognisable style.