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Ronnie Tjampitjinpa Born Circa 1943

Biography
The primary images in Ronnie's work are based on the Tingari Cycle which is a secret song cycle sacred to initiated men. The Tingari are Dreamtime Beings who travelled across the landscape performing ceremonies to create and shape the country associated with Dreaming sites. The Tingari ancestors gathered at these sites for Maliera (initiation) ceremonies. The sites take the form of, and are located at, significant rock holes, sand hills, sacred mountains and water soakages in the western desert. The painting represents mens body paint designs associated with the "tingari mens" travels back in the dreamtime. They have a close affinity with the artists area and are to do with a water soakage called maturity near Lake Mackay. These designs are applied to the mens bodies when performing this ancient ceremony. Ronnie's outstation is at kintore some 750 kilometres west from Alice Springs.

Auction Record
Highest auction result $79,812
In the last ten years with over 270 sold at auction

Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
Robert Holmes a Court
Medibank Private Collection
Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Artbank
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Donald Khan, U.S.A.
Richard Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.
Musee National des Arts Africains et Oceaniens, Paris, France
Groninger Museum, The Netherlands

Exhibitions
1982 Brisbane Festival, Brisbane
1983 Mori Gallery, Sydney
1986 Galerie Dusseldorf, Germany
1986 Aboriginal Arts Australia, Canberra
1987, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1996 Gallery Gabriella Pizzi, Melbourne
1988 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
1988 Expo '88, Brisbane
1991, 1993, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
1991 Australian National Gallery, Canberra
1991 Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, U.S.A.
1992 Aboriginal Artists Agency, Sydney
1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
1992 Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat
1993 Art Gallery of N.S.W., Sydney
1993 Art Museum, Armidale, N.S.W.
1993 Art Gallery of W.A., Perth
1994 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1994 Utopia Gallery, Sydney
1994 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Milan and Palermo, Italy
1994 Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany
1995 Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1996 - 2006 Twenty-Five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
1998 Jinta Gallery, Sydney
1999 - 2001 Spirit Country, San Francisco, touring
1999 Flinders Art Museum Flinders University, Adelaide
1999 Embassy of Australia, Washington, U.S.A.
1999 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, U.S.A.
2000 Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne
2000 Papunya Tula Genesis and Genius, Australia Gallery, N.S.W.
2001, 2003 Chapel off Chapel Gallery, Melbourne

Awards
1988 Alice Springs Art Prize

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