Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri

Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri (* 1927 in Ilpitirri near Mount Denison ) is an Aboriginal from the tribe of Anmatyerre and a noted painter in Australia's cultural region of the Western Desert of local artists Papunya.

Life

His mother was killed during the Coniston massacre in 1928. He survived because he later found his mother in a Coolamon, a carrying bag, hidden, and his father, who was hunting there. He grew up in Napperby station with the sister of his mother in the family of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, one of the most successful painters of the Dot Paintings ( dot-painting ) on. In the 1960s he worked as a drover and later as a cook in the art colony Papunya. He lives with his wife Intinika, with whom he has two sons and daughters.

Work

His career as an artist began as a carver of wooden animals. He was a painter of the first generation of Papunya, when he in 1971 along with other artists at the suggestion of the art teacher Geoffrey Bardon, the honeypot ants Mural, a work with themes of the dream time of the honey ants, created on the walls of the school building of Papunya. In 1972 he co-founded the artists' organization Papunya Tula Ltd. and from 1976 to 1977 its president. He continued to paint until the 1990s.

In 1988, he exhibited his paintings on the exhibition Art of Aboriginal Australia in New York. Other exhibitions followed in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and the occasion of the All Black Festival in South Africa. He lives and paints in Papunya or in Ilili near Papunya. His paintings are represented in numerous collections worldwide.

Others

About his fate as a survivor of the Coniston massacre, he wrote a book: The Tjulkurra: Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri.