"I tasted the sugar and it tasted so sweet, like the Kulun Kulun flower."
Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri was born around 1958, east of Kiwirkurra in Western Australia. In 1984, the international headlines were filled with the ’discovery’ of the last group of Australian First Nations people who until had managed to retain their traditional lifestyle in complete isolation the late 20th century. These so-called ’last of the nomads’ or ‘lost tribe’ of nine Pintupi walked in from the bush west of Lake Owen that year and, for the first time, came into contact with western civilization.
Six of these nine Pintupi became artists. From these six, Warlimpirrnga was the first who started painting after carefully observing other artists from the community at Kiwirkurra. Within three years, Warlimpirrnga transformed from a nomad with a traditional lifestyle into one of the leading artists from the Papunya Tula Artists corporation. In 1988, he held his first exhibition in Melbourne.
Warlimpirrnga paints primarily in two style—making extensive use of geometric shapes to depict the stories of the Tingari (ancestors), or using lines made up of carefully placed dots in his Dreamings that depict holy Lake Mackay, a site of which he is one of the custodians. He uses the same dot technique as other Pintupi artists, like his brothers, Walala and Thomas, or George Tjungurrayi.
Despite the late start of his career, Warlimpirrnga is widely considered one of the most important contemporary First Nations artist. His work has appeared in several prominent galleries and museums in Australia and around the world.