Adfam Collection
Private SellerAustralia
About Artist:
| Yannima Tommy Watson | |
|---|---|
Tommy Watson 2013
|
|
| Born | Yannima Pikarli Circa 1935 Anamarapiti, Western Australia |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Contemporary Indigenous Australian art |
Yannima Tommy Watson (born 1930s[]) is an Indigenous Australian artist, of the Pitjantjatjara people from Australia’s central western desert. He has been described by one critic as "the greatest living painter of the Western Desert".
Tommy Watson
Untitled
- 2008
- 190 x 90 cm
- Fine Art Category: paintings
- Medium: Acrylic
- Origin: Australia
- Certificate of Authenticity: yes
- Issued by: Central Art Alice Springs
- Provenance: Central Art 2010
- Signed: Not signed
- Comments:
YANNNIMA TOMMY WATSON
Tommy Watson was a senior Pitjantjatjara artis born in Anumarapti Western Australia
circa 1930’s. Watson was a founding member of the Community Arts Centre at Irrunytju and began painting in 2002.
He used very vibrant colours that symbolically represent the many stories that were embedded in his country. His very strong vibrant colours were to represent symbolically the many ancestral stories of his country. He is recognised as one of Australia’s most acclaimed artists and his art was admired nationally and also internationally. His art is often considered also as a valuable investment by many purchasers.
He passed away in 2017 in Alice Springs.
His parents died when he was young and he was adopted by his uncle Nicodemus Watson. He went to live at Emabella Mission, and took on the name Watson in addition to his Aboriginal name to be then known as Tommy Yannima Pikarli Watson. Like many indigenous people of his time, he lived a nomadic life, and then as a teenager he became a stockman.
Watson artwork has been compared to several outstanding artists and a Sydney Morning Herald art critic wrote that Tommy Watson was “ a master of invention and arguably the outstanding painter of the Western Desert” comparing his use of colour to Henri Matisse.
In 2003 Watson was chosen with several major indigenous artists like Ningura Napurrula, Paddy Bedford and Judy Watson to paint art for a Musée du quai Branly building. He later went with his family to live in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Some of his large canvases sold for in excess of $800,000
Tommy Watson believed his art was an exploration of traditional Aboriginal Culture where the land and spiritualilty were intertwined and passed on through ancestral stories that were passed on from generation to generation, and collectively known as Tjukurrpa. He stated “ I want to paint these stories so that others can learn and understand our culture and country”.
In 2014 he painted a work called Ngayuku Ngura – Anumara Piti which sold for $500,000 by Piemarq Gallery in Sydney. He also painted another major work which was exhibited at one of the world’s most prestigious art exhibitions, the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF)
A hotel in Adelaide, The Watson, displays an attractive collection of high- quality reproduction prints.
Collections:
· Art Gallery of New South Wales
· National Gallery of Australia[5]
· National Gallery of Victoria[5]
· Musee du Quai Branly, Paris[10]
· Art Gallery of Western Australia
· South Australian Art Gallery
· Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
· Bega Valley Regional Gallery
· Colin Laverty, Collection
· Patrick Corrigan, Collection[17]
· Auscorp Collection
- Price: $49,000.00 AUD
- Seller: Adfam Collection, Australia
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- Artplode ID: 4287
- Artplode Seller ID: 7230
About Artist:
| Yannima Tommy Watson | |
|---|---|
|
Tommy Watson 2013
|
|
| Born | Yannima Pikarli Circa 1935 Anamarapiti, Western Australia |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Contemporary Indigenous Australian art |
Yannima Tommy Watson (born 1930s[]) is an Indigenous Australian artist, of the Pitjantjatjara people from Australia’s central western desert. He has been described by one critic as "the greatest living painter of the Western Desert".
