Pegleg Tjampitjinpa

Pegleg Tjampitjinpa lived in the vicinity of Wilkinkarra, where he and his family met a Northern Territory Welfare Branch patrol in June 1957. In 1964 his family moved to Yuendumu. Pegleg is mentioned in the books Bindibi Country by Donald Thomson (1975) and The Lizard Eaters by Douglas Lockwood (1964). He was a trustee of the Wilkinkarra Land Trust since 1984. Pegleg lived at Mount Liebig and began painting with Papunya Tula Artists when visiting friend and relation Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka at Walungurru. Probably as a result of their close association, many of Pegleg’s paintings bear a resemblance of the works to Pinta Pinta. Their painting syle of some works of the early 1970s that facoured a limited palette and focused on Tingari design. After Pinta Pinta’s death, and due to his failing eyesight, Pegleg stopped painting.

(Biography taken from Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius)

An eye operation restored his sight and he is painting once again.Pegleg painted the Men’s Dreaming cycle of the Tingari ancestors. He used the rough outlines of traditional designs, connected roundels and dots, usually with unmixed ochres on black or dark red backgrounds. In some ways his paintings are reminiscent of the style of the Pintupi painters of the early 1970’s, but his striking work is immediately recognisable as his own.

Pegleg’s paintings featured in the important exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, ‘Papunya Tula – Genesis and Genius’ in 2000. He is represented in major public and private collections throughout Australia and overseas.