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Born: circa 1930s
Yannima Tommy Watson was born at Anamarapiti, circa 1935 approximately 40 kilometres west of the small community of Irrunytju (also known as Wingellina) Irrunytju is situated in Western Australia near the tri-state border of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Watson is a Pitjantjatjara man, and his skin group is Karimara. He spent his early childhood and teenage years living with his family, travelling from water hole to water hole, hunting and gathering and learning from his father the practical skills on how to survive on their lands in the arid regions of the Gibson Desert. While growing up he learned to understand the significance of social organization and the spiritual and tribal law teachings of his ancestors. Watson also inherited the knowledge on how to find water and food within their region. However, the fate of Watson and his family and many of the other western desert nomads was sealed with the introduction of assimilation policies. This combined with the severe drought throughout the 1950’s resulted in many of the Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra and Pintupi Aborigines moving from their home lands to the administrative centres in Warburton, Ernabella and Papunya. The unfamiliar world of the Government settlements was no place for these free nomadic people who were use to a life of unlimited travel, they became disoriented and more than half of the population of these new communities died. Most never adjusted and eventually in the 1970’s and early 1980’s returned to their traditional homelands.
In 2001 Watson was one of the founding artists of the Irrunytju art centre. His work is rich in the knowledge of the topographical landforms of his country and the Tjukurrpa law that underlies it. He paints the stories of his mothers and grandfather’s country recording the sacred dreamtime stories intuitively using large vibrant colourful dots of pinks, burgundy, orange and reds to symbolically represent the dreamtime journeys of the ancient spirits and the significant episodes in the history of his tribe.
“My grandfather’s country, grandmother’s country. When they were alive, they would take me around the country, when I was a kid. That’s why we look after country, go out whenever we can. See if the rock holes are good”
His most important dreamtime stories are the Great Flood Dreaming, a story of the melting ice that flooded the lands north of the Great Australian Bight. Another story tells of the Pangkalangku, tall man eaters from the north east and his other stories tell of the tribal conflicts between the Pitjantjatjarra and the Yankunyatjarra.
As a young man Watson became a stockman at Mount Ebenezer, and then travelled to Yuendumu where he gained a reputation as an exceptional horseman. He is now a tribal elder and law man and frequently travels widely across the Pitjantjatjara lands to fulfil his traditional obligations. Today he divides his time between the remote community of Warakurna on the edge of the Great Victorian Desert and Alice Springs where he has a house and painting studio. He is widely recognised nationally and internationally and his work is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth, South Australian Art Gallery, Adelaide and in many important private collections .He was commissioned in 2005 to produce artwork to be permanently installed in the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, France, which opened in 2006. The painting Wipu rockhole (2006) was enlarged and reproduced on stainless steel tiles which adorn a ceiling within the museum.
EXHIBITIONS
2010 Irrunytju Artists, Agathon Galleries, Sydney
2009-2010 Emerging Elders – honouring senior Indigenous artists , National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
2009 Kutu Wara (The Last One), Solo Exhibition, Agathon Galleries Sydney
2009 Nganmapa Ngura (My Country) Irrunytju Artists, Linton and Kay Fine Art, Perth
2009 New Works: South Western Desert Art of Australia, Agathon Galleries Sydney, Melbourne
2009 Nganampa Tjukurpa: South Western Desert Art of Australia’, Agathon Galleries Sydney
2009 Agathon Galleries Sydney, Melbourne
2008 Agathon Galleries Sydney, Melbourne
2008 Lismore Gallery
2008 2003, 2002 Selected for Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award
2007 Musee du Quai Branly, Paris (permanent exhibition)
2007 One Sun, One Moon, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW
2007 Tommy Watson, Solo Exhibition, Agathon Galleries, NSW
2007 Senior Irrunytju Artists, Agathon Galleries, VIC
2007 Irrunytju Fundraiser Exhibition Agathon Galleries, NSW
2006 Tommy Watson, Solo Exhibition, Agathon Galleries, VIC
2006 Landmarks, National Gallery of Victoria, VIC
2006 Musée du Quai Branly Paris, France
2005 Tommy Watson, Agathon Solo Exhibition, Sydney NSW
2005 Cairns Regional Art Gallery, QLD
2005 Wollongong City Art Gallery, NSW
2005 Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Gallery, VIC
2005 Ngayuku Ngura (My Country), Vivien Anderson Gallery, VIC
2005 Senior Irrunytju Men, Aboriginal and Pacific Gallery, NSW
2004 Colour Power: Aboriginal Art post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, VIC
2004 NATSIAA – Celebrating 20 Years, National Archives of Australia, ACT
2004 Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, SA
2002/2003/2008 Finalist in Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards
COLLECTIONS
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth
South Australian Art Gallery, Adelaide
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Elizabeth and Colin Laverty, Sydney
Patrick Corrigan, Sydney
Harvey Galleries was founded by the Harvey family in 1994 with an eye to establish a dynamic and inclusive contemporary art space on the North Shore of Sydney. For almost three decades we have expanded our reach to over three gallery locations and an ever expanding stable of the best artists Australia has to offer.
Harvey Galleries acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which our galleries stand. The Guringai people (Seaforth), the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation (Sydney), and the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation (Melbourne).
We pay our respect to Elders past and present.
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