Ronnie Tjampitjinpa

Ronnie's works first appeared in Papunya Tula exhibitions during the 1970s, and later in commercial art galleries in Sydney and Melbourne throughout the 1980s. He won the Alice Springs Art Prize in 1988 and this was followed by successive solo exhibitions at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 1989 and 1990.

More than any other figure, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa can be credited with having forged a new artistic direction in embracing aesthetic minimalism, thereby freeing up further possibilities for the emerging generation of painters and challenging fixed perceptions of Western Desert art. His hypnotic designs explore interacting geometric shapes which emanate an eye-catching, pulsating action. Still infused with the Dreamings of his mythical Tingari ancestors, Tjampitjinpa refined the characteristic Pintupi simplicity of design, boldly scaling up fundamental pictorial elements, freeing them from their iconographic reference points and strongly emphasizing the distinctive repetition of line and form that has always infused Pintupi art with the spirit of their vast and ancient lands.

From the mid-1990s, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa began painting for a wide array of dealers, only occasionally returning to work with Papunya Tula. Even though Ronnie frequently worked for other dealers, Papunya Tula organised solo exhibitions for him at Alcaston Gallery Melbourne in 1995 and Utopia Art Sydney in 1994,1996, 1997 and 2002. In 2004 he was elected Chairman of the company. His work has been included in major survey exhibitions in Australia and overseas - including a solo retrospective in 2015 at the Art Gallery of NSW - yet he has mostly eschewed the trappings of fame and fortune by dividing his time between working as a painter and performing his ceremonial obligations. Able to earn money wherever he goes, Ronnie is the quintessential modern nomad, familiarly known across a wide expanse of country as he constantly travels in his four-wheel drive with his spears tied on the roof.

Submitted by Cooee Art