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Celebration of an artist who took on the world

By Steve Meacham

10 May 2004 - The man standing by the broken-down car in the red heat of the Western Desert was pleased to see his rescuers. "He'd been stuck there for three days," remembers Dr Vivien Johnson. "He needed to get a new gearbox."

The man introduced himself - "I'm Clifford Possum" - and seemed surprised Johnson knew who he was. "This was back in 1980. Clifford was already the leading figure in the Papunya Tula movement. We gave him a ride into Alice."

Not that the artist had been in danger. "He was quite comfortable being by the side of the road for three days. He'd been brought up in the bush. He referred to it as 'my supermarket'."

So started a friendship between Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, illiterate black artist, and Johnson, white art scholar, which lasted 30 years. By the time of his death in 2002, Johnson knew him as well as any non-indigenous Australian. She is the curator of the national retrospective of his work, which moves on to the Art Gallery of NSW this week, and has written the book that accompanies it.

Yet Johnson claims that although "Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri will go down in history as the most famous Aboriginal Australian artist of his generation, the mystery of who he really was may well have died with him".

Despite his celebrity - his appearance at Buckingham Palace, his Order of Australia medal - Johnson insists her friend deliberately chose to remain an enigma. He was born in a dried-up creek bed, but no one knows which year. He lost his father as a boy, but only revealed when he was himself dying that he'd watched his father perish in the desert. Even his name is an invention. "Possum" is the English translation of Upambura, his tribal name. But "Clifford"? He adopted it after a Lutheran pastor who worked at Naperby Station in the 1950s. Why? Johnson doesn't know. The artist refused to answer many of her questions. How had he lost his right eye as a young man? Had he been married before he wed Emily Nakamarra, the mother of his four children, in the 1960s? "Nobody's business," he would say.

Fortunately, Johnson has joined many of the dots. The artist's story effectively begins before he was born, with the Coniston massacre of 1928, led by Constable William Murray, which drove his family off their traditional lands. The future meant enforced settlements such as Papunya, 250 kilometres west of Alice Springs.

With his father dead, the young Possum was raised by his stepfather, One Pound Jim, later famous as the Aboriginal face on Australia's most celebrated stamp. Johnson says the young artist learnt a crucial lesson from One Pound Jim: "Aboriginal knowledge and cultural capital could be utilised while remaining true to who he was."

At first, Possum found work as a stockman. On horseback, he gained even greater insights into his traditional lands. Around the campfires, he taught himself carving. By the 1950s his carving prowess had caught the eye of Albert Namatjira, then Australia's most celebrated Aboriginal painter. Possum later claimed Namatjira had offered to train him to paint European-style watercolours. "I tell him no. I already start work - carving," Possum claimed. "He was always like that," says Johnson. "He had a very strong sense of his own direction."

Along with two cousins, Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa and Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, Clifford Possum had already established a reputation as an artist/artisan by the time teacher Geoffrey Bardon arrived at the settlement in 1971. But when Bardon revolutionised Western Desert art by encouraging elders to paint their dreamings in acrylic paint onto canvas, Possum took a back seat. It was Kaapa whose painting, Gulgardi, won the 1971 Caltex Art Award.

In 1976 the BBC came to Papunya to shoot a documentary, Desert Dreamers. Bardon selected Possum to be filmed painting a 16 by 17-metre canvas. The result, Warlugulong, now hangs in the AGNSW. "People realised he was painting a masterpiece," says Johnson. "He was immediately comfortable with the scale." His carving experience helped, she believes. He was able to visualise the final form as a carver sees statues in a lump of wood.

Thanks to Desert Dreamers, the Papunya Tula artists suddenly earned international celebrity. Possum became the face of Aboriginal culture, but he was also the first to outgrow the co-operative, says Johnson. "For a man who couldn't read or write, for whom English was his fifth or sixth language, Clifford Possum had the courage to go out and take on the world. And not with a group of kindly arts centre minders accompanying him. By himself."

He set himself up in Alice Springs, visited Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, London, New York. That he had been embraced by white establishment became obvious in 1990, when he was invited to meet the Queen, completing a journey from creek bed to Buckingham Palace garden party. Possum attended in a hired dinner suit - and a pair of white sneakers painted with dots and circles. "He had a great sense of humour," Johnson says.

His later years were tainted by tragedy. Within months of Emily's death, their older son, Daniel, also died. Johnson believes a story she was told by a friend of the artist - that Possum went to sleep in the Todd River only to awake and find his son had died beside him. "It was a terrible time for him," says Johnson. "To get all this international recognition and to lose his son and wife so close together." Two years later, he almost lost his one good eye following a brawl in an Alice Springs pub: fortunately his sight was saved.

In 1999 the artist went to the NSW commercial crime squad and announced that more than 20 paintings in a supposed Possum retrospective were forgeries. "His assertion was that he had never seen them before," says Johnson. The subsequent case became notorious, with headlines focused on Possum's admission he had signed works painted by other members of his family.

The headlines, says Johnson, were based on misunderstandings of Aboriginal culture: "Western Desert art, even before it was called art, had always been collaborative."

Humiliated, Possum withdrew. "He felt sidelined by the art world," says Johnson.

Yet "he was very proud of what he had accomplished as an artist" and was looking forward to June 21, 2002 when he was due to be invested as an Officer of the Order of Australia at Alice Springs Council Chamber. His 11 grandchildren were to be there, watching him receive his medal. Alas, it wasn't to be. He died the morning of the presentation.

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri runs at the Art Gallery of NSW, May 14-July 11.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

One of Central Australia's most famous Aboriginal artists

Subjects and Themes:

• Men's Ceremony, possum, fire, kangaroo, snake, fish, man's
  love story, lightning, goanna, water,

Awards & Commissions:

• 1983, Alice Prize, Alice Springs NT
• 1985, Mural Design, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
• 1991, Strehlow Research Foundation, Alice Springs
• 1991, Mural, new Alice Springs Airport
• Clifford Possum was the Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists during the
  late 1970s and early 1980s.

Collections held:

• Artbank, Sydney.
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
• Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
• Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
• Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia.
• Broken Hill Art Gallery.
• Donald Kahn collection, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami.
• Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide.
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
• Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles.
• Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra.
• Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
• South Australian Museum, Adelaide.
• The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.
• The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.

Individual Exhibitions:

• 1987, Paintings of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Avant Galleries, Melbourne
• 1988, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Paintings 1973-1986, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
• 1990, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London

Group Exhibitions:

• 1974, Anvil Art Gallery, Albury, New South Wales, Australia.
• 1980, The Past and Present of the Australian Aborigine, Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles
• 1980, Papunya Tula, Macquarie University Library, Sydney.
• 1981-82, Aboriginal Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Australian Museum, Queensland Art Gallery
• 1982, Perspecta (with Tim Leura), Sydney.
• 1983, XVII Bienal de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo.
• 1984, Painters of the Western Desert: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Paddy Carroll Tjungurrayi and Uta Uta Tjangala, Adelaide Arts festival
• 1984, Aboriginal Art, an Exhibition Presented by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra
• 1985, Dot and Circle, a retrospective survey of the Aboriginal acrylic paintings of Central Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne
• 1985, The Face of the Centre: Papunya Tula Paintings
• 1971-1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
• 1987, Circle Path Meander, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• 1987, Aboriginal Art from the Central Desert and Northern Arnhem Land, Community Arts Centre, Brisbane
• 1988, Dreamings, the art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York.
• 1988, The Fifth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
• 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art]
• 1989, Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• 1989, Papunya Tula: Contemporary Paintings from Australia's Western Desert, John Weber Gallery, New York,
• 1990, l'ete Australien a' Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gallery, Montpellier, France.
• 1990, Songlines, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
• 1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Center for the Arts, United States of America
• 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra
• 1991, Alice to Penzance, The Mall Galleries, The Mall, London
• 1991, Australian Aboriginal Art from the Collection of Donald Kahn, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA
• 1991, Canvas and Bark, South Australian Museum, Adelaide.
• 1992, Crossroads-Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art from Australia, National Museums of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo
• 1993, Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA
• 1993/4, ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark
• 1994, Dreamings - Tjukurrpa: Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert; The Donald Kahn collection, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich
• 1994, Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria.
• 1994, Yiribana, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

Select Bibliography:

• Australian Aboriginal Art from the Collection of Donald 1991, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA.
• Bardon, G., 1979, Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert, Rigby, Adelaide. (C)
• Bardon, G., 1991, Papunya Tula Art of the Western Desert, McPhee Gribble, Ringwood, Victoria. (C)
• Berndt, R. M. and Berndt, C. H. with Stanton, J., 1982, Aboriginal Australian Art, a Visual Perspective, Methuen Australia Pty Ltd, Sydney.
• Brody, A., 1985, The face of the centre: Papunya Tula Paintings 1971-1984, NGV, Melbourne.
• Caruana, W., 1987, Australian Aboriginal Art, a Souvenir Book of AboriginalArt in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory. (C)
• Caruana, W. (ed.), 1989, Windows on the Dreaming, Ellsyd Press, Sydney. (C)
• Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (C)
• Chanin, E., 1990, (ed.), Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Roseville, NSW, Australia.
• Cooper, C., Morphy, H., Mulvaney, D.J. and Petersen, N., 1981, Aboriginal Australia, Australian Gallery Directors Council, Sydney. (C)
• Crossman, S. and Barou, J-P. (eds), 1990, L'ete Australien a Montpellier: 100 Chefs d'Oevre de la Peinture Australienne, Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France. (C)
• Crumlin, R., (ed.), 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Collins Dove, North Blackburn, Victoria. (C)
• Crocker, A. (ed.), 1981, Mr Sandman Bring Me a Dream, Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, Alice Springs and Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd, Sydney. (C)
• Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria.
• Duerden, D., 1990, 'Clifford Possum in London', Art Monthly, August 1990, No. 33, P. 12
• Isaacs, J., 1984, Australia's Living Heritage, Arts of the Dreaming, Lansdowne Press, Sydney. (C)
• Isaacs, J., 1989, Australian Aboriginal Paintings, Weldon Publishing, New South Wales.
• Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales.
• Johnson, V., 1994, The Art of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Gordon and Breach Arts International limited, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW.
• Johnson, V., 1995, 'Is there a gender issue in Aboriginal art?', Art & Australia, Vol. 32, No. 3.1993, Aratjara, Art of the First Australians: Traditional and Contemporary Works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists, exhib. cat. (conceived and designed by Bernard Luthi in collaboration with Gary Lee), Dumont, Buchverlag, Koln. (C)
• Neale, M., 1994, Yiribana, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. (C)
• Maughan, J., and Zimmer, J., (eds), 1986, Dot and Circle, a Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Paintings of Central Australia, exhib.cat., Communication Services Unit, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne. (C)
• McCulloch, A., & McCulloch, S., 1994, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd.Smith, B. with Smith T., 1991, Australian Painting 1788-1990, Oxford University Press, 3rd edition,
• Sutton, P. (ed.), 1988, Dreamings: the Art of Aboriginal Australia, Viking, Ringwood, Victoria. (C)
• 1983, XVII Sao Paulo Biennale, exhib. cat.
• 1981, Australian Perspecta 1981, A Biennial Survey of Contemporary Australian Art, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. (C)
• 1988, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Paintings 1973-1986, exhib. cat., Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
• 1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings Ltd., Perth.
• 1993, Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), exhib. cat., Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. (C)

Details:

• Clifford received little education as he grew up ‘in the bush’ around Jay Creek and worked at various stations around Glen Helen, Mt. Wedge and Mt. Allan as a stockman. Encouraged to paint by his brother Tim LEURA with the Geoffrey Bardon’s group of ‘painting men’ during the early 70’s.Employed at Papunya teaching wood carving and was Chairman of Papunya Tula Artists in the late 70’s early 80’s.
• Clifford has two daughters, Gabriella and Michelle, both of whom have gone on to become recognised artists as well. Although Clifford has country around Mt. Wedge, Napperby station and Mt. Allan, he spends most of his time, either in Alice Springs or with his daughters in Melbourne and Adelaide.
• Recently one of Clifford’s early paintings (1972 Love Story) was sold by Sotherby’s for $50,600.oo (18th June 1995). Regarded as one of the most famous of the Western Desert aboriginal artists, his works are highly sought after.

Source: Aboriginal fine arts gallery

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