Maruwah - Tjumpo Tjapanangka

At the time of his death in 2007, Tjumpo Tjapanangka was Balgo’s most venerated male artist and the most highly regarded Law Man and Maparn (healer) in the community. This painting depicts ceremonial practices in Tjumpo's country. Horizontal lines depict the incisions made on the chests of older men going through advanced stages of initiation. In both his art and his personal demeanour, Tjumpo Tjapanangka affected an infectiously vivacious and animated style. It is this energy and confidence that he employed to build the resonating planes that characterised his finest works and brought such critical acclaim. His wife Ningie Nangala shared his preference for softer colours, and to some extent this aesthetic can be seen in the more recent paintings created by his stepdaughter, Elizabeth Gordon, to whom he passed on a number of his Dreamings.