Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula

Turkey grew up in the area surrounding Haasts Bluff and went through the initiation ceremony to manhood in the late 50’s, he later moved to Papunya where he worked as a labourer on construction work and in the kitchen. In 1983 he moved to Kintore after his first wife died where he has traditional land to the southeast.He was Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists and one of their most highly acclaimed artists, regarded as amongst the most innovative and figurative of all of the Papunya Tula artists. He also painted in the classical, traditional Pintupi style of circles and connecting lines and is regarded as one of the “Grand Old Masters” of the central Western Desert art movement.Turkey’s speech and interview material is included in the documentary ‘Market of Dreams’ and he is also featured in ‘East/West: Land in Papunya Paintings’ at Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide, SA 1990.

Commissions: 1979, Artist in Residence, Flinders University,

with David Corby

Collections held:

Artbank, Sydney. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia. Darwin Supreme Court. Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide. Museum of Victoria, Melbourne. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. Sails Collection, Sails in the Desert Hotel, Yulara Complex, Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park. South Australian Museum, Adelaide. The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth. The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A. Victorian Centre for Performing Arts, Melbourne.

Exhibitions:

1974, Anvil Art Gallery, Albury 1977, Nigerian Festival Exhibition, Lagos, Nigeria 1981, Anvil Art Gallery, Albury. 1982, Brisbane Festival, Brisbane. 1982, Georges Exhibition, Melbourne. 1983, Mori Gallery, Sydney. 1983, Roar Studios, Melbourne. 1984, Koori Art ’84, Art Space, Sydney. 1985, Dot and circle: a retrospective survey of the Aboriginal acrylic paintings of central Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne. 1985, The Face of the Centre: Papunya Tula Paintings 1971-1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 1985, The Second National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1986, Roar Studios, Melbourne. 1987, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. 1987, The Fourth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1988, Papunya Tula Paintings, Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery, Wagga Wagga. 1988, The Fifth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1989, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. 1989, Mythscapes, Aboriginal Art of the Desert, National Gallery of Victoria. 1990, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. 1990, National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome. 1991, Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs. 1991, Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia. 1991, The Painted Dream: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings from the Tim and Vivien Johnson Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery and Te Whare Taonga o Aoteroa National Art Gallery, New Zealand. 1991, Canvas and Bark, South Australian Museum, Adelaide. 1992, The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1992/3,

New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal Australia, touring USA and Australia. 1992/93, The Heritage of Namatjira, touring exhibition, through Flinders University Art

Museum. 1993, Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga, Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach, Qld. 1993, Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA. 1993, The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1995, The Twelfth National Aboriginal Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.

Select Bibliography:

Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (C)

Crocker, A. (ed.), 1981, Mr. Sandman Bring Me a Dream, Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, Alice Springs and Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd, Sydney. (C)

Chanin, E., 1990, (ed.), Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Roseville, NSW, Australia

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

Maughan, J., and Zimmer, J., (eds), 1986, Dot and Circle, a Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Paintings of Central Australia, exhib. cat., Communication Services Unit, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne. (C)

McCulloch, A., & McCulloch, S., 1994, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, St Leonards, New South Wales.

Perkins H. ‘Beyond the Year of Indigenous Peoples’ in Art and Australia 1993 Vol 31 No 1 p 98-101.

Schulz, D., 1994, Lines from the Dreamtime, The Australian Way, Qantas in flight magazine, May 1994

Wallace, D., Desmond, M., Caruana, W., 1991, Flash Pictures, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Zurbrugg, N., 1991, Tim Johnson interviewed, Art and Australia quarterly, Vol 29, No. 1, Spring 1991

1990, Papunya Tula, exhib. cat., Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. (C)

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

Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula's Artworks

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