15

SAM TJAMPITJIN (1925 - 2004)
Acrylic on Belgian linen
80 x 80 cm

Sam has painted some of his country, Witjinpi, near Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay) in the Great Sandy Desert, far to the south of Balgo. The central undulating design is warrarnpa (claypan) country. This warrarnpa is surrounded by tali (sandhills) represented by the parallel lines around the edges of the painting. This is a Tingari or Men’s Law and business place.

PROVENANCE
Warlayirti Artists, Balgo Hills, Western Australia, painted in 2001,
Certificate number 1062/01
Private Collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED
‘Balgo Hills’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, 2002, Catalogue number 5
‘Balgo 4-04’, Warlayirti Artists, Balgo Hills, 2004, Catalogue number 11

Sam was a senior Law Man in the Balgo Community and his paintings are mainly concerned with the secret and sacred sites of men’s ceremonial business. He spent most of his early life around Gulgunpa, near Lake Mackay, and was a senior custodian for large tracts of land in this area. When Sam was a young man he walked into the original Balgo mission, Tjumundu, with his father. Sam used to recall tending to the goats and shearing the sheep at the mission. He told how they enjoyed the meat from the mission after the game of the desert. Sam started painting with the arrival of the art coordinator Michael Rae at Warlayirti Artists, a time when many of the senior men at Balgo began to paint. From this time Sam painted his country and the sacred law associated with it. Sam was a natural brother to one of Balgo’s greatest artists, Sunfly, who is now deceased.

REPRESENTED
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of South Australia
Robert Holmes à Court Collection
Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA