Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (* 1932 in the Napperby station at Alice Springs, † 21 June 2002 in Alice Springs ) was an Australian painter. He was one of the most recognized and successful artists of the modern Aboriginal painting from the Aboriginal Papunya Tula artists' community in the Western Desert region. His works have been exhibited in numerous galleries and collections in Australia and around the world.

Life

About his life relatively little is known. His father was Gwoya Jungarai, the most famous face of Aborigines in Australia, because it is mapped to two Australian currency coins. His two sisters, Gabriella Possum Nungurayyi and Michelle Possum Nungurayyi, like him, were well-known artists and the artistic community of Papunya were initially about his burial disagree and that is why he was buried in Yuelamu until several weeks after his death.

Work

Clifford Possum lived in Papunya in the Northern Territory in the Western Desert region and he first developed the style of dot painting, the points - painting, which he executed in acrylic. Was funded by the style of painting the young school teacher Geoffrey Bardon, who came in the early 1970s after the Papunya Aboriginal and asked to reproduce their dreamtime stories in their painting and performing arts. Clifford Possum was the outstanding artistic figure of this new school of painting, which is called in Australia Papunya Tula.

Tjapaltjarri put before him as Albert Namatjira the way for further Aboriginal painter free and made the Aboriginekunst world not only as a traditional art form, but as a new art style known.

Clifford Possum died in Alice Springs at the age of about 70 years and after his death his works achieved the highest growth rates in the art market. His work, which was sold for the first time for 1200, scored 2.5 million Australian dollars at auction by Sotheby's. That was more than double of what ever scored a work of art of the Aborigines had .. The day after the auction was announced that the National Gallery of Australia had bought the work for the government, as this would prevent it from overseas lost.