About
Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri (c. 1920–2008) was a Pitjantjatjara man who lived in the small community near Mount Liebig in the Northern Territory. Bill Whiskey came to painting late in his life and was renowned as a powerful ngankari or traditional healer and keeper of sacred knowledge. His paintings, the first to depict the powerful Dreaming story and the creation of significant sites throughout his Country, are imbued with authority and steeped in tradition. Bill Whiskey’s spectacular paintings depict his Country around the area of Kata Tjuta (Mount Olga) and Uluru (Ayers Rock) and his subjects also include the mythic battle related in the Cockatoo Dreaming, which occurred at his birthplace, Pirupa Alka.
He began painting at eighty-five and continued until his death four years later. During this short time, Bill Whiskey completed a relatively small number of large canvases where he captured the rockholes, hills, and rocky outcrops across the breadth of his Country, mapping out the places that occupied his memories.
Exhibitions
Fairs, Events & Announcements
Art Fair
FIAC Online 2021
Printemps oublié
March 2–12, 2021
Gagosian is pleased to present Printemps oublié for the first online edition of FIAC. This curated presentation reflects the dual character of springtime as a reminder of past trials and the harbinger of a vibrant new season to come.
All the artworks will appear on the Gagosian website and a rotating selection will appear in the inaugural FIAC Online Viewing Rooms, from March 4 to 7.
Jeff Koons, Bluebird Planter, 2010–16 © Jeff Koons
Online Viewing Room
Frieze Los Angeles 2020
February 10–19, 2020
gagosianviewingroom.com
Gagosian will launch its latest Online Viewing Room on the occasion of Frieze Los Angeles, with available works by Chris Burden, Alex Israel & Bret Easton Ellis, Neil Jenney, Albert Oehlen, Chris Ofili, David Reed, Ed Ruscha, Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri, Tatiana Trouvé, and Jonas Wood. Many of the artworks included in this virtual presentation consider the political, geographical, and social landscapes of Los Angeles.
The Frieze Los Angeles 2020 Online Viewing Room will open at 12:00am on Monday, February 10, in Hong Kong, and close at 11:59pm on Wednesday, February 19, in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
For more information about the Online Viewing Room or the work to be featured, please contact inquire@gagosian.com.
Download the full press release (PDF)
Chris Burden, L.A.P.D. Uniform, 1993 © 2020 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Museum Exhibitions
Closed
Selections from Australia’s Western Desert
From the Collection of Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield
September 12–October 27, 2022
National Arts Club, New York
www.nationalartsclub.org
This exhibition of contemporary Indigenous Australian painting from the remote regions of Central and Western Australia includes six large works that originate from thousands of years of tradition, disconnected and uninfluenced by the outside world. Distinct from outsider art and not defined by chance affinities with western contemporary abstract art, these paintings stand as stories and narratives infused with an intense connection to the local landscape.
Carlene West, Tjitjitji, 2015 © Carlene West/Copyright Agency