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Don Tjungurrayi B.1938

An ancient culture of 60 thousand years gave the World its most exciting Contemporary Art
 

Don Tjungurrayi is a renown Australian artist painting since the 70´s. Tjungurrayi won many Art prizes including the prestigious Alice Springs Art Prize in 1986. Tjungurrayi produced many exceptional paintings translating the ancient Initiation Ceremony into contemporary works of art.

Don Tjungurrayi work is held in worldwide Collections including Kelton Foundation USA, National Gallery Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Bank, Museum of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Australian Art Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery, Museum Art Gallery of NT, Wollongong City Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Arts Centre Melbourne, Hank Ebes Collection, Araluen Arts Centre, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Kerry Stokes

Warumpi Arts:
In 1994 Papunya Community Council established Warumpi Arts its own art centre-gallery in Alice Springs, as the main centre for paintings by Papunya artists, run by Aboriginal people of Papunya.

The centre-art-gallery was maintained until September 2004. The Papunya Community Council decided to close the gallery and open Papunya Tjupi Arts art centre in Papunya
 

Don Tjungurrayi  Biography

Don Tjungurrayi born circa 1938, is a well-known Australian artist. Don has been painting since the beginning of the Aboriginal Art movement, commencing in Papunya during the 1970s.

Biography page 406 Australian Aboriginal Artists dictionary of biographies

photo: Date 1989, Don Tjungurrayi with his painting is at Collection National Archives of Australia Canberra - ABORIGINAL PEOPLE AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLES ART
Image no. A6135, K3/11/89/16A, Barcode: 11689913,
Location: Canberra, Series accession number: A6135/1

1986 Don Tjungurrayi won the prestigious  Alice Springs Art Prize with a very beautiful painting of the young male’s initiation ceremony. 

While many ceremonies are public, Male Initiation Ceremonies are secret and strangers, young women, non initiated boys and girls would be limited in attending the sacred ceremonies. The main categories of ceremonies are; education of their sacred laws and behavioral codes and to ensure continuation of totemic species to live in harmony with the land. Aboriginal men perform the ceremonies at different times of the year. Each ceremony has to be organized, supervised and managed and the performance of each ceremony dependents the person ownership, their knowledge as well as their status. A concentric circle represents a meeting place. Ceremonies involve songs, dances and body adornment.

Don Tjungurrayi was born at the Bungalow in Alice Springs Telegraph Station in Australia, the year that World War two broke out. Don Tjungurrayi attended the Yuendumu school and in his youth he worked as a drover and boundary rider.

Don was initiated near Haast’s Bluff and then began working as a stockman and fencing contractor on various stations, including Hamilton Downs. He married the widowed Entalura Nangala and moved to Papunya where he was working in the communal centre.

Don Tjungurrayi work is represented in many significant colections such as

Homes a Court Collection, Perth

Wollongong City Art Gallery NSW Australia

Kelton Foundation California

Kerry Stokes Collection

1982 Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd., Sydney, Australia
1982 Georges Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia
1983 Mori Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1983 Roar Studios, Melbourne, Australia
1984 Mori Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1984 Papunya and Beyond, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australia
1984 Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd., Alice Springs, Australia
1985 Aboriginal Artists Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
1986 Galerie Düsseldorf, Perth, Australia
1986 Queensland University, Brisbane, Australia
1987 4th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia
1988 Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia
1991 The Painted Dream. Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1992 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australia
1992 Dreamtime Gallery, Broadbeach, Australia
1993 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
1993 Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia
1993 Tjukurrpa. Desert Dreamings - A Survey of Central Desert Art
1971-1993, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
1994 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australia
1994 Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia
1994 Dreamtime Gallery, Broadbeach, Australia
1995 Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia
1997 Geschichtenbilder, Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer, Germany
1998 Kunst der Kontinente. Werke der Aborigines, Kunstverein Alsdorf, Germany (in cooperation with the Aboriginal Art Gallery Bähr, Speyer)
1999 Zeichen des Seins. Malerei der australischen Aborigines, Städtische Galerie ADA, Meiningen, Germany (in cooperation with the Aboriginal Art Gallery Bähr, Speyer)
2000 BlickDicht - An- und Einblicke. Zeitgenössische Kunst australischer Aborigines, Adelhausermuseum, Freiburg, Germany (in cooperation with the Aboriginal Art Gallery Bähr, Speyer)
2000 Kunst der Aborigines, Leverkusen, Germany (in cooperation with the Aboriginal Art Galley Bähr, Speyer)
2000 Traumpfade Zeitgenössische Malerei australischer Aborigines, Städtische Galerie, Traunstein, Germany (in cooperation with the Aboriginal Art Gallery Bähr, Speyer)

Tjungurrayi's paintings have also been exhibited in China, Germany, Singapore, London and Brussels, and around Australia

Initiation Ceremony is an inspiring beautiful painting with a dramatic juxtaposition of colour that has the physical presence of the much contemporary work of art, and Don Tjungurrayi masterwork, arguably the best he has done.

Tjungurrayi use remarkable, meticulousness in-depth precision brush strokes to achieve in a commanding and poignant work of art.

Don Tjungurrayi painted 'Male Initiation Ceremony' (in 2002) with fascinating accuracy and intricate details of subtle shades of colour that moves with the viewer’s eyes and floats in air giving the multi-dimensional effect. 'Men Initiation Ceremony' painting is fitted out to hang vertical and horizontal orientation.

While many ceremonies are public, Male Initiation Ceremony are secret and strangers, young women, non initiated boys and girls would be limited in attending the sacred ceremonies. They main categories of ceremonies are; education of their sacred laws and behavioral codes and to ensure continuation of totemic species to live in harmony with the land. Aboriginal men perform the ceremonies at different times of the year. Each ceremony has to be organized, supervised and managed and the performance of each ceremony dependents the person ownership, their knowledge as well as their status. A concentric circle represents a meeting place. Ceremonies involve songs, dances and body adornment.

Men Initiation Ceremony (in general sense) is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society and also a formal admission to adulthood in a community. The initiation is normally regarded as a stage where a boy is to be taught manhood. Initiation is an event which may help young men to prepare themselves to be good husbands.

Australian Aboriginal tribes usually had long periods of time to help prepare adolescent boys, teaching them the Law before they were ready to attend large elaborate ceremonies at the time of initiation when they were finally recognized as full-fledged men in their society. In many tribes, initiation involves circumcision of males and scarification as a part of the male rituals, while many Central Australian tribes also practiced sub-incision. Tribes initiations are considered necessary for the individual to be regarded as a full member of the tribe. Otherwise, the individual may not be allowed to participate in ceremonies or even in social ritual such as marriage. A man will not be allowed to marry or have any special relationship with a woman who didn't go to an initiation, because she is not considered as a woman. In an extended sense it can signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, is called an 'initiate'.