Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

Works named in the authority record are Warlugulong. Work by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri is recorded in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Art Gallery of South Australia. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Order of Australia.

• Name — Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri • Other Names — Clifford Possum, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjari • Born — 1932 • Birthplace — Napperby Station, Northern Territory, Australia • Died — 21 June 2002 1932 • Place of death — Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia • Known for — Painting, contemporary Indigenous Australian art

Possum's father was Tjatjiti Tjungurrayai and his mother was Long Rose Nangala. After his father's death in the 1940s his mother married Gwoya Jungarai, better known as One Pound Jimmy, whose image was used on a well known Australian postage stamp. His brother was Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, whose artwork appeared on another stamp. His older brother Cassidy Possum Tjapaltjarri was a traditionalist who barely gone outside of the Yuelamu community and was one of the most respected elders till his passing in 2006, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was the most famous of the contemporary artists who lived around Papunya, in the Northern Territory's Western Desert area, when the acrylic painting style (known popularly as "dot art") was initiated. Geoffrey Bardon came to Papunya in the early 1970s and encouraged the Aboriginal people to put their dreaming stories on canvas, stories which had previously been depicted ephemerally on the ground. Clifford Possum emerged as one of the leaders in this school of painting, which has come to be called the Western Desert Art Movement. His first international exhibition was held in London at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in 1990 and titled 'Clifford Possum and the Papunya Tula Artists. Possum was of the Anmatyerre culture-linguistic group from around Alherramp (Laramba) community. He was of the Peltharr skin. When it held an exhibition of his work in 2004, the Art Gallery of New South Wales described his artistic background: He was an expert wood-carver and took up painting long before the emergence of the Papunya Tula School in the early 1970s. When Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri joined this group of 'dot and circle' painters early in 1972 he immediately distinguished himself as one of its most talented members and went on to create some of the largest and most complex paintings ever produced. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri led a ground-breaking career and was amongst the vanguard of Indigenous Australian artists to be recognised by the international art world. Like Albert Namatjira before him, Clifford Possum blazed a trail for future generations of Indigenous artists; bridging the gap between Aboriginal art and contemporary Australian art.

• Art Gallery of New South Wales • Holmes à Court Collection • Kelton Foundation • National Gallery of Australia • Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia • Redrock Gallery, Melbourne