Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa

Kenny was born near Kiwikurra and spent his early years travelling with his family around Wilkinkarra, deep in the Western Desert Country. During a serious drought, Kenny’s family was brought into the government-run settlement of Papunya by a welfare patrol. They had little choice but to settle there with many others of the Pintupi people. It was during the early 1970’s that the beginning of the art movement there prompted a growing awareness and wide appreciation of their cultural traditions. Though Kenny returned to his homelands, (living at Balgo Hills and later, the outstation of Intinti, west of Kintore), his art practice, encouraged by his older brother Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, brought him back to live in Papunya during the late 1980’s. He served as chairman for Papunya Tula Arts for some years. Kenny paints his ancestral lands, inspired by the sacred Tingari cycle of initiation and the essential topography of sandhills and water soakages that make survival possible in this arid desert country. The hypnotic effect of his delicately painted mesh of fine lines is visually striking and reminiscent of the deep cultural knowledge that invigorates his work. The linear geometry of soft zigzags and curves, replicates that seen on ceremonial shields, boomerangs and tjuringa. He has been described as a perfectionist (Vivien Johnson), working slowly and carefully on his large canvases, to produce such a mesmerizing result. The subtle tones of his earthy palette further instill the sense of ancestral meaning and its tethering to country. In 2000, Kenny won the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. He is one of the names that will always connect our contemporary art world to history and the Western Desert Tradition, and his work can be seen in major galleries throughout Australia. © Adrian Newstead