The painterly heritage of Kunmanara Palpatja – a tribute.

The most senior male artist at Tjala Arts, Amata, South Australia, passed away recently. Tjala Arts asked us to contribute a short essay on this important artist to be read at his funeral and included in an accompanying booklet.

Our respects go to this great artist, his family, friends and art centre.

The painterley heritage of Kunmanara Palpatja: A Tribute

A respected carver of punu for many decades, since Kunmanara began painting in 2004 at the age of around 83 his distinctive canvases have been hailed as amongst the greats of contemporary Australian painting. Notable for luscious colour and looseness of design, characteristically Kunmanara’s works feature soft pinks, reds and yellows that contrast with deeper colours such as rich midnight blues and black. White was used often as highlighting colour, working with the base colour to create dotted stipples that play across the canvas, while hints of deep red, greens, magenta and blues provide depth and outline.

Kunmanara’s main painting theme was that of the ancient Wanampi story of the mythical water or rainbow snake that formed the country of his birthplace near the Piltati rockhole. Sometimes he also told a simpler story (especially in earlier paintings) – that of bush food. Perhaps in these Mai Tjuta (Plenty Food) works he was recalling a time of plenty, before the devastation to the Australian environment by farming, mining, and introduced species such as feral cats and camels that have impacted so greatly on the native wildlife and flora.

In their bold painterly quality and seemingly free design Kunmanara’s paintings may appear as figurative abstracts. And so, at one level and in the western context, they are. Yet inherent in each work, underlying the layers of glowing colour and curvilinear shapes, are the ancient stories, recorded in these works as they had been by Kunmanara’s ancestors for tens of thousands of years in designs incised on rock faces and sacred men’s objects. It is this extraordinary melding of ancient knowledge and contemporary medium, handled with such a joyous confidence, that gives Kunmanara’s paintings both a strong visual aesthetic and a powerful cultural integrity.

These glorious late artistic outpourings of a long, productive and creative life have become woven into the cultural fabric of this country. They will ensure that Kunmanara’s heritage will live on to inform and inspire future generations.

Susan McCulloch and Emily McCulloch Childs
May 2012

Kunmanara Palpatja, Wanampi Tjukurrpa, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 198 x 152 cm. Finalist NATSIAA 2009. Collection NGV.

Kunmanara Palpatja, Wanampi Creation Story, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 152 x 101.5 cm. NGV Collection.

Kunmanara Palpatja, Wati Wanampi Kutjara, 2912, acrylic on canvas, 153 x 196 cm. AGNSW Collection.

Kunmanara Palpatja, Mai Tjuta – Plenty Food, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 122 x 152 cm. Corrigan Collection. Courtesy Tjala Arts.

Kunmanara Palpatja, Mai Tjuta – Plenty Food, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 101 x 101 cm. Corrigan Collection. Courtesy Tjala Arts.

Posted 17th May 2012 by Emily McCulloch Childs