Born at Tjuurlnga in the Angas Hills east of Kiwirrkurra, Warlimpirrnga was the son of Papalya Nangala and Waku Tjungurrayi, an old man who had claimed Papalya and two of her sisters as his wives and taken them to live out in the desert, avoiding any contact with whitefellas.
Warlimpirrnga grew to manhood 'chasing the clouds': searching for rain as they followed the traditional lifestyle of the Western Desert peoples in the country west of Wilkinkarra.
After his father's death when Warlimpirrnga was about five years old, Waku's place as senior man of the group was taken by Lanti Tjapanangka, who married Waku's widows and continued to enforce the group's isolation. A few years after Lanti died, the twice-widowed sisters sent Warlimpirrnga and his older half brother Piyirti (Payirti) Tjapaltjarri, son of Waku and Watjungka Nangala, the youngest of the three sisters, in search of their long-lost relatives.
In October 1984, the brothers encountered Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka and his son Matthew trying to fix a flat tyre at their Winparrku (Mt Webb) outstation just out of the newly established Pintupi homelands community of Kiwirrkurra.
The subsequent arrival of the family group of nine in Kiwirrkurra made national headlines.
Until this point, Warlimpirrnga had no contact with Europeans and their ways. After three years at the settlement, he approached Daphne Williams of Papunya Tula Artists with the request that he be allowed to paint.
The other artists instructed him in the use of paint and canvas, and he completed his first painting for the company in April 1987 .
His first eleven paintings were exhibited in Melbourne at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 1988, the entire group being donated to the National Gallery of Victoria by Ron and Nellie Castano. Warlimpirrnga is married to Yalti Napangati, who is the older daughter of Lanti and Nanu Nangala, Papalya's younger sister.
They have four children, two sons and two daughters.
Warlimpirrnga paints Snake and Tingari stories for his country, including the sites of Marawa and Kanapilya and the salt lake and soakage area of Kalparti which is the southwest section of Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay).
Other recurrent subjects are Minatapinya, a large swamp south of Marawa where Tingari men camped as they made their way east towards Wilkinkarra, and Malu (Kangaroo) Dreaming. Warlimpirrnga's work is consistently in demand and he and his 'brother' Walala also paint for private dealers in town.
When interviewed in 1999, Warlimpirrnga's driving ambition was to own his own car and he spoke often of the need to 'organise' to this end .
Later that year he and Ray James had a two-man show at Gabrielle Pizzi's Melbourne gallery and its success enabled him to purchase a 4WD vehicle by the end of the year. The Balgo artist Tjumpo Tjapanangka was a close relative of Warlimpirrnga and others in the so-called 'first contact' group.
In August 2000, Warlimpirrnga travelled to Sydney with a group of four men from Kiwirrkurra to make a ground painting at the Art Gallery of NSW for the opening of Papunya Tula : Genesis and Genius.
He seemed unperturbed by the crowds and adulation, but was more at home clowning around the Kiwirrkurra art shed with Kanya or out hunting goanna near Walawala.
His life was the subject of an episode of Robert Hughes' Beyond the Fatal Shore documentary for Oxford TV, BBC and ABC in which he expressed a desire to establish an outstation on his own country.
An extended article, 'The Last Nomads', in The Bulletin magazine (4 May 2004 pp.28-35) also featured Warlimpirrnga's 'first contact' experience. In recent years he has gone from strength to strength culminating in his work making the 1st ever Papunya Tula show in NY and also a solo show at Scott Livesey Gallery in Melbourne in the summer of 2009..
Born at Tjuurlnga in the Angas Hills east of Kiwirrkurra, Warlimpirrnga was the son of Papalya Nangala and Waku Tjungurrayi, an old man who had claimed Papalya and two of her sisters as his wives and taken them to live out in the desert, avoiding any contact with whitefellas.
Warlimpirrnga grew to manhood 'chasing the clouds': searching for rain as they followed the traditional lifestyle of the Western Desert peoples in the country west of Wilkinkarra.
After his father's death when Warlimpirrnga was about five years old, Waku's place as senior man of the group was taken by Lanti Tjapanangka, who married Waku's widows and continued to enforce the group's isolation. A few years after Lanti died, the twice-widowed sisters sent Warlimpirrnga and his older half brother Piyirti (Payirti) Tjapaltjarri, son of Waku and Watjungka Nangala, the youngest of the three sisters, in search of their long-lost relatives.
In October 1984, the brothers encountered Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka and his son Matthew trying to fix a flat tyre at their Winparrku (Mt Webb) outstation just out of the newly established Pintupi homelands community of Kiwirrkurra.
The subsequent arrival of the family group of nine in Kiwirrkurra made national headlines.
Until this point, Warlimpirrnga had no contact with Europeans and their ways. After three years at the settlement, he approached Daphne Williams of Papunya Tula Artists with the request that he be allowed to paint.
The other artists instructed him in the use of paint and canvas, and he completed his first painting for the company in April 1987 .
His first eleven paintings were exhibited in Melbourne at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 1988, the entire group being donated to the National Gallery of Victoria by Ron and Nellie Castano. Warlimpirrnga is married to Yalti Napangati, who is the older daughter of Lanti and Nanu Nangala, Papalya's younger sister.
They have four children, two sons and two daughters.
Warlimpirrnga paints Snake and Tingari stories for his country, including the sites of Marawa and Kanapilya and the salt lake and soakage area of Kalparti which is the southwest section of Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay).
Other recurrent subjects are Minatapinya, a large swamp south of Marawa where Tingari men camped as they made their way east towards Wilkinkarra, and Malu (Kangaroo) Dreaming. Warlimpirrnga's work is consistently in demand and he and his 'brother' Walala also paint for private dealers in town.
When interviewed in 1999, Warlimpirrnga's driving ambition was to own his own car and he spoke often of the need to 'organise' to this end .
Later that year he and Ray James had a two-man show at Gabrielle Pizzi's Melbourne gallery and its success enabled him to purchase a 4WD vehicle by the end of the year. The Balgo artist Tjumpo Tjapanangka was a close relative of Warlimpirrnga and others in the so-called 'first contact' group.
In August 2000, Warlimpirrnga travelled to Sydney with a group of four men from Kiwirrkurra to make a ground painting at the Art Gallery of NSW for the opening of Papunya Tula : Genesis and Genius.
He seemed unperturbed by the crowds and adulation, but was more at home clowning around the Kiwirrkurra art shed with Kanya or out hunting goanna near Walawala.
His life was the subject of an episode of Robert Hughes' Beyond the Fatal Shore documentary for Oxford TV, BBC and ABC in which he expressed a desire to establish an outstation on his own country.
An extended article, 'The Last Nomads', in The Bulletin magazine (4 May 2004 pp.28-35) also featured Warlimpirrnga's 'first contact' experience. In recent years he has gone from strength to strength culminating in his work making the 1st ever Papunya Tula show in NY and also a solo show at Scott Livesey Gallery in Melbourne in the summer of 2009..