Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery

Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra

Considered as one of the grand masters of the art movement

Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra

Other Spellings: Jakamarra, Jagamara, Jakamara, Djakamara
Other Names: Phillipus, Longjack Phillipus, Jack Phillipus

Born: 1932
Region: Papunya, Western Desert
Country: Parikurlangu, Kalipinpa
Language Bloc: Western Desert, Arandic
Language: Luritja, Warlpiri
Social Affiliations: Tjakamarra subsection

Awards:
1983, Northern Territory Golden Jubilee Art Award
1984, Alice Prize, Alice Springs

Collections held:
Artbank, Sydney.
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian. National University, Canberra.
Museum and Art Gallery of the NT, Darwin.
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.

Exhibitions:
1974, Anvil Art Gallery, Albury
1974 to 1976, Art of Aboriginal Australia, touring Canada, Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd.
1977, Christ College, Oakleigh, Victoria.
1983, Mori Gallery, Sydney.
1984, Papunya and Beyond, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs.
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, A selection of Aboriginal Art owned by the ANU, Drill Hall Gallery, ACT.
1988, ANCAAA and Boomalli, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Ko-operative, Sydney
1988, Recent Aboriginal painting, AGSA, Adelaide.
1989, Mythscapes, Aboriginal Art of the Desert, National Gallery of Victoria.
1989, A selection of Aboriginal Art owned by the ANU, Drill Hall Gallery, ACT.
1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery,
Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art]
1990, l'ete Australien a' Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gallery, Montpellier, France.
1990, From the Centre to the Sea, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative,
Chippendale, Sydney.
1991, The Painted Dream: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings from the Tim and
Vivien Johnson Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery and Te Whare Taonga
o Aoteroa National Art Gallery, New Zealand.
1993, Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), ]
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth,
1994, Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria

Select Bibliography:
Brody, A., 1985, The face of the centre: Papunya Tula paintings 1971-1984, NGV, Melbourne

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)

Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (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)

Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat.,
Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria.

Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW. (C)

Ryan, J., 1989, Mythscapes Aboriginal Art of the Desert from the National Gallery of Victoria,
exhib. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. (C)

1974, Art of Aboriginal Australia, exhib. cat., Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Limited. (C)

1988, ANCAAA and Boomalli, exhib. cat., Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Ko-operative, Sydney. (C)

1988, Recent Aboriginal Painting, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

1993, Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), exhib. cat.,
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. (C)

Details

Jack Phillipus Born c.1932 at Kalimpinpa, an important Rain Dreaming site north-east of Kintore.
His father, who was Warlpiri, came from Parikurlangu to the north of Kalimpinpa and his mother,
who was of mixed Warlpiri/Luritja descent, also came from Kalimpinpa.

Long Jack grew up in the bush west of Mt Farewell and came into Haasts Bluff settlement with his
whole family as a teenager. He worked at Haasts Bluffas a timber contractor and stockman and married
Georgette Napaltjarri. They have two sons, three daughters and many grandchildren.

Long Jack has been part of the Papunya painting movement since the beginning of the '70s when
he was a Councillor at Papunya. It was Long Jack, together with Billy STOCKMAN, who was also a
school yardman at the time, who offered their help with painting the smaller murals around the
Papunya school, which preceded the large Honey Ant mural.

Long Jack has painted intermittently since those times, taking out the NT GoldenJubilee Art Award
in 1983 and the Alice Springs Art Prize in 1984.

In 1984 he was ordained as a Lutheran pastor. Of the Warlpiri/Luritja language group, Long Jack's
paintings depict Hare, Wallaby, Kingfisher, Dingo and other Dreamings in the Mt Singleton area.
He lives in Papunya and remains close to his 'brother', Michael NELSON, with whom his family camped
Haasts Bluff in the early years before the Papunya settlement. His younger sister, Pauline WOODS,
is a well-known Western Desert artist currently working out of Alice Springs. Collections: Holmes a
Court, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of WA, Art Gallery of SA, Art Gallery of NSW,
University of WA Anthropology Museum, Museums & Art Galleries of NT.

(Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert. By Vivien Johnson)