BORN: c 1950s
LANGUAGE GROUP: PINTUPI
REGION: PAPUNYA, WALUNGURRU (KINTORE) NORTHERN TERRITORY
View Willy’s artwork here
Willy was born at Patjantja in the area of Wilkinkarra in 1930. He then went to Haasts Bluff in the late 1950s, before moving on to Papunya. He is the younger brother of the very well known artist, the late Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi. His other brother George Ward Tjungarrayi is a very well respected artist also. In 1976, Willy Tjungurrayi commenced painting the traditional Tingari cycle of stories for Papunya Tula Artists.
In the 1980s he emerged as one of the senior Pintupi painters.
He paints stories linked to the Tingari Song Cycles relating to these places. The artist’s senior position in his community entitles him to paint the most significant and secret parts of the Tingari stories, many of which cannot be revealed to the uninitiated.
He tends to paint with a restrained palette (browns, oranges, dusky pinks and creams) typical of many of the Papunya artists.
Willy Tjungurrayi’s work has been collected by the National Gallery of Australia, The Art Gallery of N.S.W, the Holmes a Court Collection and the Victorian Arts Centre.