Joseph Tjapaltjarri Jurra b. c.1950

  • Artist (Painter)
A leading artist for Papunya Tula based at Kiwirrkura (WA). He secured his first solo exhibition at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 1989, a few years after taking up painting. His work is held in major public and private collections.
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Born in the desert at the site of Kiwirrkura in the early ’50s, Joseph came into Papunya with the NT Welfare Branch Patrols in the ’60s. Willy Tjunurrayi and others helped to raise him after his father’s death. For a time, he attended school in Papunya and later at Yuendumu. He worked for Yuendumu Council, then the Papunya canteen. He went to live in Balgo for a time, before settling in Kiwirrkura with his wife and three children when the new settlement was established there at the beginning of the ’80s. He began painting for Papunya Tula Artists only in 1987, but secured one of the earliest solo exhibitions organised through Papunya Tula at the Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery in 1989. Joseph travelled to Melbourne for the show, his first time out of Central Australia.

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

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Related people
  • Tjungurrayi, Willy (associate of)