Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra

Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra (c. 1932 – 2020 ), occasionally referred to as Kumantjayi Long Tjakamarra, was a Ngalia/Warlpiri man (a Western desert man) and a founding member of the Papunya Tula art cooperative. His contribution to the Honey Ant Dreaming mural would help define and catalyze the art style of the Western Desert Art Movement.

The impact of Long Jack and the Papunya Tula on the Western Desert Art Movement is best expressed through Long Jack's statement in 2010, "We started it, like a bushfire, this painting business, and it went every way: north, east, south, west, Papunya in the middle."

Biography Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra was born in 1932 in an area north-east of Kintore (Pintupi: Walungurru), referred to as Kalipinya, situated in the Northern Territory of Australia. Long Jack and his family would later move to Haasts Bluff. He stayed in Haasts Bluff throughout his early adulthood where he worked as a timber cutter and stockman and got married. Tjakamarra would move again in 1962 to Papunya where he worked as a groundsman and councillor at a nearby school. Tjakamarra later took on the name of "Long Jack" due to his above average height.

Long Jack would not start his artistic journey until the arrival of school teacher Geoffery Bardon in 1971. Bardon's encouragement of the Papunya school children to create art would inspire the elders, including Long Jack, to get involved in painting. Long Jack, alongside Bill Stockman Tjapaltjarri, would first paint two murals "Widow's Dreaming" and "Wallaby Dreaming" on the school walls before working on the quintessential Honey Ant Dreaming mural. The Honey Ant Dreaming mural was inspired by the patterns that Bardon and his interpreter Obed Raggett had painted upon a classroom floor. Upon seeing these patterns, Long Jack and the other yardmen would come to Bardon and Raggett seeking to take part in the mural. Long Jack would help work on the Honey Ant Dreaming mural through its entirety from June to August 1971.

Long Jack would often spend his time in a school room working on other projects whilst working on the Honey Ant Dreaming mural. In July 1971, he and other yardmen would work on painting a puppet theater for the children of Papunya. In early 1972, a painting room was created which became the main area in which Long Jack and the other painting men would create their art. Later into 1972, Long Jack would join the Papunya Tula cooperative created by Geoffery Bardon alongside Papunya painters Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri and Bill Stockman Tjapaltjarri. His artistic skills stem from his upbringing as an Aboriginal Australian with his more formal painting development coming from Geoffrey Bardon's teachings.

Exhibitions

Important Australian Paintings (28 February 2023 – 25 March 2023) at Philip Bacon Galleries and (16 March 2019 – 2 June 2019) at Araluen Arts Centre Landmarks and Law Grounds: Men of the Desert (12 April 2013 – 22 May 2013) at Japingka Aboriginal Art Gallery Papunya Tula : Genesis and Genius (18 August 2000 – 12 November 2000) at Art Gallery of New South Wales

Collections Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (21 works, including Water and lightning story at Pulinganu 1971 and Honey Ant story 1971) National Museum of Australia (2 works, Wilkinkarra men's camp 1975 and Making spears 1975) National Gallery of Australia (4 works including Snake story 1973 and Water course) National Gallery of Victoria (3 works including Emu dreaming and Possum man and possum woman travelling) Art Gallery of South Australia (2 works Water dreaming 1987 and Widow's dreaming 1971) Art Gallery of Western Australia (6 works including The water ancestors 1974 and The snake and the bushfire 1974) Japingka Aboriginal Art Gallery (5 works including Possum dreaming and Snake dreaming) Araluen Arts Centre (1 work, Children's dreaming) Art Gallery of New South Wales (1 work, Travels of the snake Larru Larru)

Awards

Northern Territory Golden Jubilee Art Award (1983) Alice Springs Caltex Art Award (1984)