Bobby West Tjupurrula Australian, Pintupi, b. 1958
Bobby West Tjupurrula
Born 1958
Region Pintupi
Biography
Bobby is the son of Freddy West Tjupurrula, one of the original shareholders of Papunya Tula Artist. He was born at the rockhole site of Tjamu Tjamu, which is east of Kiwirrkura, around 1958. Bobby’s family was met by Jeremy Long’s welfare patrol in 1963. At the time his family was camping at Willi rockholes, slightly east of Kintore. Bobby appears with his family in the book ‘The Lizard Eaters’ by Douglas Lockwood, which documents the 1963 patrol. He commenced painting for Papunya Tiula Artist in the late 1980’s. In 1999 Bobby contributed to the Kiwirrkura men’s painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal.
Awards
2011 General Painting Award, 28th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award
Selected Solo Exhibition
2002 William Mora Galleries, Melbourne VIC
2014 Bobby West Tjupurrula & Katarra Butler Napaltjarri, ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore
Group exhibitions
2018 ‘Community IX’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW
2017 ‘NEW the latest from Kiwirrkurra’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW
2017 ‘Community VIII’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW
2016 ‘The Last Hurrah’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW
2016 ‘Aux origines de l’art’, Aboriginal Signature – Estrangin Gallery, Brussels, Belgium.
2016 ‘Tjukurrmanu Maru & Tjulkura – Dreaming In Black & White’, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
2015 ‘Community VII’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW
2015 '32nd Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award', Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
2015 ‘Papunya Tula Artists – Indigenous Paintings From Australia’s Western Desert’, Brumby Ute Gallery, Aspen, Colorado, USA
2013 ‘Crossing Cultures’ – The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, USA.
2012 ‘Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection’, Seattle Art Museum, USA
2011 'Pintupi Art 2011', A P Bond Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
2011 '28th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award',
2011 Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin, Northern Territory,
2011 ‘Recent Pintupi Works’, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
2010 'Wilkinkarralakutu - Journeys To Lake Mackay', Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin, NT.
2010 'Ngurrakutu - Going Home', Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory,
2009 'Icons Of The Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings From Papunya', Herbert F. Johnson Museum Of Art, Cornell University, New York, USA.
2009 'Prelude', Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia.
2008 ‘Papunya Tula Artists 2008’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2008 ‘Pintupi Art 2008’, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA
2007 ‘Master Works from Papunya Tula’, Birrung Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2006 ‘A Particular Collection’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW
2006 ‘Land Marks’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC
2006 ‘Rising Stars’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2005 ‘Rising Stars’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2005 ‘Papunya Tula – New Paintings From The Kintore and Kiwirrkura Region’, John Gordon Gallery, Coffs Harbour, NSW
2005 ‘Strong and Stately’, Red Dot Gallery, Singapore
2004 ‘Pintupi Artists’, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, NT
2004 ‘Aboriginal Art’, Scott Livesey Art Dealer’, Melbourne, VIC
2004 ‘Pintupi Art 2004’.Tony Bond Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA
2004 ‘Papunya Tula Artists – 2004’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2004 ‘Talking About Abstraction’, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts – UNSW, Sydney,
2004 ‘Binocular: looking closely at Country’, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts – UNSW, Sydney,
2003 ‘Papunya Tula Masters’, The Depot Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2003 ‘Pintupi Art 2003’, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA
2003 ‘Kintore-Kiwirrkura 2003’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2003 ‘Pintupi Art From The Western Desert’, Indigenart, Subiaco, WA
2003 ‘Papunya Tula Artists – A Gift from the Desert’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW
2003 ‘Pintupi Artists’, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, NT
2002 ‘Painting From Our Country’, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2002 William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, VIC 19th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT
2002 ‘Pintupi Artists’, Papunya Tula Artists’, Alice Springs, NT
2001 ‘Papunya Tula 2001’, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, VIC
2001 ‘Art of the Pintupi’, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA
2001 ‘Six Painters from Papunya Tula Artists’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Kintore-Kiwirrkura’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2001 ‘Aboriginal Art 2001’, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne, VIC
2001 ‘Pintupi Exhibition’, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, NT
2001 ‘Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Comunidad de Madrid touring exh., Spain
2000 Utopia Art Sydney, NSW Framed Gallery, Darwin, NT
2000 ‘Pintupi Men’, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, NT
2000 ‘Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW
Awards
2011 General Painting Award, 28th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
Collections
National Gallery of Victoria
Charles Darwin University
Cornell University, New York, USA
Seattle Art Museum
Griffith University Art Collection
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA
Selected Bibliography
Scott Livesey Art Dealer, ‘Aboriginal Art 2001’, exhibition catalogue, Melbourne, Victoria,
Scott Livesey Art Dealer, ‘Aboriginal Art 2004’, exhibition catalogue, Melbourne, Victoria,
Ryan J. ‘Land Marks’, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, 2006.
Johnson, V. 'Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists', I.A.D. Press, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, 2008.
Cross Cultural Art Exchange, 'Wilkinkarralakutu - Journeys To Lake Mackay', exhibition catalogue, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, 2010.
Hood Museum of Art, ‘Crossing Cultures’ – The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art, exhibition catalogue, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA.
Papunya Tula Artists - Indigenous Paintings From Australia’s Western Desert’, exhibition catalogue, Brumby Ute Gallery, Aspen, Colorado, USA, 2015