JOSEPH JURRA TJAPALTJARRI

As a boy, Joseph Jurra and his family were brought into the small but overcrowded settlement of Papunya in 1964. They had been picked up by a welfare patrol and removed forever from their traditional nomadic existence in the Gibson Desert. The Pintupi people were the last to be put into the settlement and suffered even more neglect as they camped on the western fringe of the Papunya community. Homesickness and hardship perhaps intensified the focus of the senior ‘painting men’ on their strong cultural roots; their mythical conceptions of time, space and identity elucidated in the Tingari Travels. The mythical Tingari ancestors moved through vast stretches of land, creating its features and its sources of life and sustenance, performing rituals and instilling their song lines. They were followed by the Tingari women, who camped nearby and performed creation ceremonies of their own. Tingari paintings became the classic Pintupi style and featured crucially in their later claim for return to their homelands and establishing of communities, the outstation movement of the 1980s.

When his father died not long after their arrival in Papunya, Jurra was raised by Yumpululu Tjungurrayi, his mother’s second husband, and his uncle, Willy Tjungurrayi. Both men were involved in the beginnings of the painting movement that was facilitated by school teacher Geoffrey Bardon in the early 1970s. Jurra attended school at Papunya and later worked in the canteen and then on the council at Yuendumu. At this time, painters in Papunya worked in close proximity to each other, often singing ceremonial songs and collaborating on artworks. The older established artists took on apprentices whom they instructed in painting technique and cultural knowledge. Jurra assisted Charlie Taruru Tjungurrayi, who he later said really taught him how to paint. Jurra also spent time at Balgo, where he had family connections and came into contact with the growing painting movement there. At this time in Balgo, artists were concerned about revealing too much secret cultural knowledge and painted with a looser, more abstracted look in comparison to the classic Pintupi constructions of circles and lines with cleanly dotted outlines and infill. Eventually, Jurra married and moved south, to the newly established community of Kintore, with his growing family.

During the period when the homeland communities of Kintore and Kiwirrkurra were established, art advisors had to travel long distances to deliver materials and pick up artwork. This reconnection to traditional lands inspired an explosion of artistic activity right across the desert. As the older generation of painting men passed on, Jurra was amongst the younger generation that rose to take their place. He began painting for Papunya Tula in 1986 and was one of the first to be afforded a solo show at the Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery in Melbourne (1988). The era of the individual desert artists being recognised at a national level had arrived, and international recognition soon followed. Jurra accompanied Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula to Paris to create a sand painting as part of the exhibition 'Peintres Aborigenes d’Australie' (1997). In 1999 and 2000, he was voted Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists. His work is represented in numerous collections both in Australia and overseas.

Schooled in the monumental Pintupi tradition yet also stepping beyond its early schemas, Jurra creates mesmerising works of repeated fine lines upon detailed, dotted surfaces. These lines symbolise the abstracted pathways of the Tingari ancestors, weaving and dancing before the viewer’s eye - an effect referred to as ‘shimmer’. His large canvases are intensely alive with fine workmanship and a commanding austerity. He maintains the traditional warm earth colours of his desert country. In his later years, Jurra has leaned towards a more minimalist style that evokes a contemplative presence.

Profile author: Sophie Baka

References

Bardon, Geoffrey; Ryan, Judith; Pizzi, Gabrielle; Stanhope, Zara., Mythology and Reality - Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2004.

Crumlin, R., (ed.), 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Collins Dove, North Blackburn, Victoria.

Isaacs, J., 1989, Australian Aboriginal Paintings, Weldon Publishing, New South Wales.

Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales.

1990, Papunya Tula, exhib. cat., Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.

1993, Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), exhib. cat., Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.