Anatjari Tjampitjinpa b. c.1927

Also known as Anitjari Jampijinpa, Anatjari No. 1
  • Artist (Painter)
A pioneering painter with Papunya Tula Artists, and influential in the spread of painting to Balgo WA. His work featured in landmark exhibitions, such as "Dreamings: Art of Aboriginal Australia" which toured the USA (1988-1989), and is represented in major national and international collections.
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Anatjari and his family were brought out of the desert into Papunya by the NT Welfare Branch patrols in 1964. The patrol’s meeting with Anatjari the previous year was the subject of Douglas Lockwood’s 1964 book, The Lizard Eaters . Anatjari joined Papunya Tula artists in the mid ’70s, and for the next two and a half decades (c. 1976-1999) was one the company’s most consistent and dedicated painters. His country, where he grew up and spent the first forty years of his life, lay across the NT border in WA, south of Jupiter Well. While in Balgo visiting relatives, Anatjari instructed people about painting with canvas and acrylics, including his younger brother, Dini Campbell , who later moved to Kintore and began painting for Papunya Tula Artists. Anatjari’s son Ray James also took up painting, as did George Yapa Yapa , who was raised by Anatjari after his father’s death. Anatjari’s work was shown in Face of the Centre , National Gallery of Victoria 1985, the Asia Society’s Dreamings: Art of Aboriginal Australia exhibition and many other group exhibitions of Papunya Tula Artists. The artist spent the last decade of his life in Kiwirrkura WA.

Writers:
Johnson, Vivien Note: primary biographer
Date written:
1994
Last updated:
2011

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References [<ExternalResource: Johnson, V. (2008), 'Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists', IAD Press, Alice Springs, NT ISBN 978 1 86465 090 7url:, .>, <ExternalResource: Johnson, V. (2008), 'Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists', IAD Press, Alice Springs, NT ISBN 978 1 86465 090 7.>, <ExternalResource: Lockwood, Douglas (1964), 'The Lizard Eaters', Cassell Australia, Melbourne.>, <ExternalResource: Bardon, Geoffrey and Bardon, James (2004), 'Papunya: A Place Made After the Story; The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement', Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, VIC ISBN-10 : 0-522-85110-X / ISBN-13: 978-0522851106.>] [<ExternalResource: Johnson, V. (2008), 'Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists', IAD Press, Alice Springs, NT ISBN 978 1 86465 090 7url:, .>]