SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.- The Art Gallery of New South Wales presents today “Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri,” on view through July 11, 2004. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (c.1932-2002) was one of the truly visionary Australian artists of the twentieth century. Through the sheer power  and beauty of his paintings , Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri introduced his culture to the rest of Australia and then, to the world. This exhibition is the first touring retrospective of a Western Desert artist’s work. The exhibition comprises significant paintings and sculptures by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. The works of art have been drawn from public collections around the nation and private collections in Australia, Europe and America, reflecting Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s international success.
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was certainly one of the most innovative and accomplished Western Desert artists. This exhibition is a celebration of his 30-year career and focuses on the compelling beauty and technical brilliance of his paintings.
Born in the early 1930s at Napperby Station, north-west of Alice Springs, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri lived and worked in his ancestral Anmatyerre country until the final decades of his life.
He was an expert wood-carver and took up painting long before the emergence of the Papunya Tula School in the early 1970s. When Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri joined this group of ’dot and circle’ painters early in 1972 he immediately distinguished himself as one of its most talented members and went on to create some of the largest and most complex paintings ever produced.
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri led a groundbreaking career and was amongst the vanguard of Indigenous Australian artists to be recognised by the international art world. Like Albert Namatjira before him, Clifford Possum blazed a trail for future generations of Indigenous artists; bridging the gap between Aboriginal art and contemporary Australian art.
Sadly, this great pioneering artist died on 21 June 2002 in Alice Springs, the day he was to be presented with a medal awarding him the Order of Australia for his services to art and to the Indigenous community.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Vivien Johnson, a highly regarded scholar of Western Desert art and personal friend of the late artist, with the assistance of the Art Gallery of South Australia.
A fully illustrated book about Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, written by Dr Vivien Johnson and published by the Art Gallery of South Australia accompanies the exhibition.