Who was Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri?
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was an Anmatyerr artist from Central Australia and one of the founders of the Papunya Tula art movement. He is among the most celebrated Aboriginal painters of the twentieth century.
Born around 1932 near Napperby Station northwest of Alice Springs, Clifford Possum worked as a stockman and became known as a skilled woodcarver before he began painting at Papunya in the early 1970s.
His large paintings combine many Dreaming stories and sites into complex maps of country, using dots, circles and tracks. Warlugulong, painted in 1977 with his brother Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, is one of the most important works in Australian art.
Record sale
In 2007, the National Gallery of Australia bought Warlugulong for about 2.4 million dollars, at the time a record price for an Aboriginal artwork. Its first buyer, the Commonwealth Bank, had paid around 1,200 dollars for it in 1977.
Clifford Possum was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2002 for his services to Indigenous art.
He died in 2002, on the day he was due to receive the honour. His daughters, including Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, are also respected artists.
Did You Know?
Warlugulong depicts the story of Lungkata, the blue-tongue lizard man, and a great bushfire.