Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
1933 - 2002
Kumuntjayi Tjapaltjarri
Region: Western Desert
Community: Papunya, Alice Springs
Outstation: Karinyarra -Mt Wedge, Tjuirri -Napperby Station
Language: Anmatyerre, Arrernte
Art Centre: Papunya Tula Artists
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, a pioneering figure in the Western Desert art movement, stands as one of the continent’s most distinguished painters of the late twentieth century. Following the death of his father, Tjatjiti Tjungurrayai, in the 1940s, his mother, Long Rose Nangala, relocated to Jay Creek with her second husband, the renowned One Pound Jim Tjungurrayai.
PROFILE
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
1933 - 2002
Region: Western Desert
Community: Papunya, Alice Springs
Outstation: Karinyarra -Mt Wedge, Tjuirri -Napperby Station
Language: Anmatyerre, Arrernte
Art Centre: Papunya Tula Artists
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, a pioneering figure in the Western Desert art movement, stands as one of the continent’s most distinguished painters of the late twentieth century. Following the death of his father, Tjatjiti Tjungurrayai, in the 1940s, his mother, Long Rose Nangala, relocated to Jay Creek with her second husband, the renowned One Pound Jim Tjungurrayai.
One Pound Jim, a legendary figure in Central Australia, was not only a guide to early explorers and anthropologists but also became a symbolic face of the region when his portrait was immortalized on an Australian stamp between 1950 and 1966. Under his guidance, along with that of other Tjungurrayai men, Clifford underwent his initiation into manhood at Napperby Station. However, Clifford’s celebrated Love Story, inherited from his father’s country west of Mount Allan, and the Bush Fire Dreaming from his mother’s country south of Yuendumu, would become the defining themes of his artistic legacy.
In his early years, Possum worked with cattle at various stations including Glen Helen, Mount Allan, Mount Wedge, Napperby, and Hamilton Downs. It was at Glen Helen that his artistic journey truly began, as he found that carving for the burgeoning tourist market offered better pay and conditions than stock work. His carvings, particularly of wooden snakes and goannas, garnered acclaim throughout Central Australia for their exquisite craftsmanship. In the early 1950s, Possum collaborated on the construction of the Papunya settlement alongside his classificatory ‘brother’ Tim Leura and his cousin Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, son of Long Rose’s sister Margie Long. During this time, he married Emily Nakamarra, who would become the mother of his four children: Daniel, Lionel, Gabriella, and Michelle.
While Tim Leura became one of the founding members of the Papunya Tula artists, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri did not join the burgeoning group of painters under the mentorship of art teacher Geoffrey Bardon until February 1972. Possum’s distinctive artistic style developed rapidly, marked by an inventive spatial configuration that set his work apart from the more conventional Papunya idiom of dots, circles, and lines. This innovation in spatial design, likely influenced by his earlier skills in woodcarving, imbued his early paintings with a striking sense of atmosphere—a quality that distinguished them from the works of other Western and Central Desert artists, who were less focused on evoking psychological depth.
Though his early career works hinted at his potential, they were but a prelude to the monumental paintings he would create on an unprecedented scale in the late 1970s. These grand canvases have been described as “beautiful palimpsests” of his extensive Dreaming sites, viewed from shifting perspectives. As Possum’s art evolved, he fused the abstract diagrams of ancestral journeys with the cartographic forms familiar to Western audiences. His ability to merge these different visual languages allowed the unfamiliar viewer to grasp the complex intersections of spiritual and geographical landscapes.
As he refined his practice, Possum introduced elements of Western iconography and figurative imagery into his narratives. This strategy served a dual purpose: it made his work more accessible to Western audiences while allowing him to explore imaginative compositions within the constraints of cultural law. Possum, ever mindful of the sacredness of his subject matter, skilfully navigated the delicate balance between revealing and concealing ancestral knowledge. He created a set of secular, non-traditional motifs that became a signature of his work, particularly in his recurring theme, the "Man’s Love Story." This tale centers on a Tjungurrayai man who, against kinship rules, desires a Napangardi woman, wooing her by spinning hair string while singing love songs—a poignant narrative that resonates with the themes of longing and cultural tensions.
This and other works from the start of the 1980s onwards are characterised by a complex of designs rendered with modulated tone and broken colour. The fractured shaping of the in-filled fields of dots achieves an extraordinary visual effect, ‘flat but with a thin three-dimensional disguise’ (Bardon 2004: 82). It was only towards the end of Clifford’s life that there was a dramatic reduction in his palette. His most emblematic final works are bleak depictions in black and white; boys' skeletal remains float starkly on unadorned backgrounds as if ethereally infused with the artist's 'own impending sense of death' (Nicholls 2004: 24).
The 2002 retrospective of Clifford Possum’s work, which toured extensively across the Continent, offered a comprehensive survey of the artist's remarkable 30-year career. The exhibition showcased the breadth of his artistic journey, with early, smaller works from 1972-1973 and the haunting skeletal sketches from his final years serving as poignant bookends to a singular creative adventure. While Clifford himself may have cherished his private audience with Queen Elizabeth II as the pinnacle of his career, the low point undoubtedly came in the late 1990s when he uncovered an exhibition filled with forgeries in Sydney, a discovery that brought unwanted attention and adverse publicity.
Despite being the only Papunya Tula artist to receive a solo retrospective from a major institution by the dawn of the new millennium, Clifford had largely distanced himself from the organization by the mid-1980s. He chose to return to his Anmatyerre homeland at Mount Allan, where he began selling his works directly to the government marketing agency, Aboriginal Arts Australia, in Alice Springs. In a bid to maximize income for himself and his countrymen, he also signed and passed off as his own many works created by others, including Michael Tommy, Brogus Tjapangarti, and other artists from the region. This complex legacy, marked by both his artistic brilliance and the moral ambiguities of survival, underscores the multifaceted nature of Clifford Possum’s life and work.
In the late 1980s he produced a large body of works for John O’Laughlan who acted as his agent and travelled with him to his exhibition at Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London. Clifford worked for a time with disgraced dealer Chris Peacock in Adelaide whose company TOAC printed the logo ‘Bush Myths’ on the back of all canvases. Peacock worked with many artists who painted outside of the art centre system including Emily Kngwarreye. He was reported to have used stand over tactics and violent threats in forcing Possum to sign paintings that were not entirely his own. However, the truth is elusive as sadly, by this time, Clifford was addicted to alcohol and gambling and was producing a large number of perfunctory minor works, signing paintings that he ‘owned’ but which he did not actually paint and others that were not entirely executed by his own hand.
Throughout the early 1990s, he lived and travelled with his daughters Gabriella and Michelle and his son-in-law Heath Ramzan as well as others. He worked for a variety of dealers including, Michael Hollows at his Aboriginal Desert Dreaming Gallery, Peter Los in Alice Springs, and Semon Deeb at Jinta Gallery in Sydney. He painted for Frank Mosmeri in Broadmeadow and Des Rogers in Sunbury on the outskirts of Melbourne, and Swiss collector Arnaud Serval, who seemed to share a good relationship with the artist and ensured the works he handled were entirely in Clifford’s own hand.
For a time his affairs were managed by Joy Aitken who sold amongst the genuine paintings, individually painted by Clifford and his daughters, many collaborative works where the daughter's assistance was never acknowledged. Leaving Aitken with a number of canvases in various states of completion it appears that out of desperation, given the financial difficulties involved in keeping the ‘Possum Shop’ going, she crossed the Rubicon and completed the dotting on some of these works herself.
Clifford’s career and standing reached its nadir when a solo exhibition organised for an important Sydney gallery in the late 1990s was exposed as being almost entirely composed of fakes. The works had been commissioned by the late Patrick Corbally Stoughton from Alice Springs based dealer John O’Laughlan who was found guilty of fraudulent involvement. When Clifford came down to view the exhibition, he visited the Art Gallery of NSW and other institutions pointing out countless works purported to have been created by him but which he denied having painted.
In turning away from the communal ethos of the Papunya movement to engage directly with the dominant Western art market, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s artistic motivations became increasingly obscured by his growing fame as a cultural icon. This trajectory mirrors that of Albert Namatjira, who passed away 40 years earlier, long before the Papunya movement took shape. Both artists began their lives in humble creek beds, far removed from the international art circles they would later navigate with fearless assurance. Namatjira had even encouraged Clifford to follow in his footsteps, though likely not in the way that Clifford ultimately did.
Despite declining health and failing eyesight, Clifford spent his final years in a loving relationship with Milanka Sullivan in Warrandyte, in the hills outside Melbourne. Under her care, he created many of his most powerful late-career works. Since his death in 2002, Sullivan has been a vigilant custodian of his legacy, working tirelessly to authenticate his paintings, expose forgeries, and write a book she believes will reaffirm Clifford’s stature as Indigenous Australia’s preeminent painter.
Few lives have been written as boldly across the canvas of the Continent’s First Nations art movement as that of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Over a career spanning more than three decades, he produced masterpieces that will undoubtedly be recognized as some of the most significant works inIndigenous art history. His presence in major national and international exhibitions, as well as in the literature, rivals that of any other Australian Indigenous artist. His achievements were many: he received an Order of Australia for his contributions to the Western Desert art movement, served as chairman of Papunya Tula in the late 1970s and early 1980s, had a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II in 1990, and became the first true ambassador for the continents First Nations art on the global stage. Posthumously, he was honored with a solo retrospective by the Art Gallery of South Australia that toured state galleries, and his life and work have been chronicled in two books by his long-time friend and biographer, Vivien Johnson.
ARTIST CV
Selected Collections:
Artbank, Sydney.
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia.
Broken Hill Art Gallery.
Donald Kahn collection, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA.
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide.
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles.
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra.
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
South Australian Museum, Adelaide.
Selected Solo Exhibition:
2004 - Binocular: looking closely at Country, Ivan Dougherty Gallery , Sydney.
2003 - 2004 - Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, travelling from Art Gallery of South Australia to major cities.
1990 - Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London.
1988 - Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Paintings 1973-1986, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
1987 - Paintings of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Avant Galleries, Melbourne;
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2019 - The Continuing Legacy Of Clifford Possum: Cliford, Gabrielle, Michelle, Cooee Art Gallery, Sydney.
2015 - 2016 - Streets of Papunya, including Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, Isobel Gorey Nambajimba, Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, Punata Stockman Nungarrayi, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, Candy Nelson Nakamarra, Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi, Martha McDonald Napaltjarri, Limpi Puntungka Tjapangati, Beyula Puntungka Napanangka, Mary Roberts Nakamarra, at UNSW Galleries before touring to Flinders University Art Museum, RMIT Gallery, and Drill Hall Gallery, ANU
2015 - Indigenous Art: Moving Backwards into the Future, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
2013 - My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
2013 - Australia, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK.
2011 - Celebrating 40 years of Papunya Tula Artists Invitation, featuring Anatjarri Tjakamara, Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, Bombatu Napangati, Charlie Egalie Tjapaltjarri, Charlie Tarawa Tjungurrayi, Charlie Tjapangati, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Dini Campbell Tjampitjinpa, Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa, Doreen Reid Nakamarra, George Tjungurrayi, George Ward Tjungurrayi, Inyuwa Nampitjinpa, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula, Joseph Jurra Tjapaltjarri, Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Kanya Tjapangati, Kim Napurrula, Kutungka Napanangka, Lorna Napanangka, Makinti Napanangka, Maxie Tjampitjinpa, Michael Nelson Tjakamarra, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, Naata Nungurrayi, Nolan Tjapangati, Nyilyari Tjapangati, Old Tutama Tjapangati, Patrick Tjungurrayi, Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka, Pirrmangka Napanangka, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Rubilee Napurrula, Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi, Tatali Nangala, Tjunkiya Napaltjarri, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Uta Uta Tjangala, Walangkura Napanangka, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, Wintjiya Napaltjarri, Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, Yukultji Napanangka, Yumpululu Tjungurrayi at Utopia Art Sydney.
2009 - Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya including the following artists: Anatjari (Yanyatjarri) Tjakamarra, Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, Charlie Tarawa (Tjararu) Tjungurrayi, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Freddy West Tjakamarra, George Tjangala, John Kipara Tjakamarra, Johnny Scobie Tjapanangka, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa, Kingsley Tjungurrayi, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, Old Walter Tjampitjinpa, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi, Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, Tim Payungka Tjapangarti, Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Uta Uta Tjangala, Willy Tjungurrayi, Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, Yumpuluru Tjungurrayi, organised by the Herbert F.Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
2007 - Papunya Painting - Out of the desert, National Museum of Australia, Canberra.
2006 - Terre de Rêves, Terre des Hommes, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Musée de la Préhistoire, Bougon, France.
2005- Terre de Rêves, Terre des Hommes, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Musée de la Préhistoire d’Île de France, Nemours; Terre de Rêves, Terre des Hommes, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Ambassade d’Australie, Paris.
2004 - EXPLAINED, A closer look at Aboriginal art, Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
2000 - Arts d’Australie, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Air France, Paris.
1997 - Dessine moi un rêve. L’Art des aborigènes d’Australie, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Musée des Beaux-Arts, Auxerre; L’Art des Aborigènes d’Australie, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Festival du Film, Cannes; L’Art des Aborigènes d’Australie, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Espace Paul Riquet, Béziers.
1994 - Dreamings - Tjukurrpa: Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert; The Donald Kahn collection, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich; 1994, Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria.; 1994, Yiribana, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
1993 - Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA; 1993/4, ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark.
1992 - Crossroads-Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art from Australia, National Museums of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo.
1991 - Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra; 1991, Alice to Penzance, The Mall Galleries, The Mall, London; 1991, Australian Aboriginal Art from the Collection of Donald Kahn, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA; 1991, Canvas and Bark, South Australian Museum, Adelaide.
1990 - l'ete Australien a' Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gallery, Montpellier, France.; 1990, Songlines, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London; 1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Center for the Arts, United States of America.
1989 - Survey of Aboriginal Contemporary Works, The Bloomfield Galleries, Sydney, NSW. Featuring Raymond Meeks, Nyukana Baker, Angkuna Kulyuru, Yipati Kuyata, Makinti, Maria Curley, Nyukana Hatches, Jillian Davey, Yipati Munti, Caroline Tjangala, Mayan Taylor, Dick Roughsey Jimmy Pike, Jack Britten, George Mungmung, Hilda Bird, Pansy Petyarre, Glory Kngale, Nora Petyarre, Emily Kngwarreye, Gloria Petyarre, June Bird, Eileen Bird, Katy Kemarre, Glady Kemarre, Yilla, Old Mick Tajakamara, Maxie Tjampitjinpa, Barney Daniels Thungurrayi, Billy Stockman Tjapaltjari, Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa, Pansy Napangarti, Roy Jupurrurla Curtis, Toby Jampijinpa Robertson, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjari, Madeliene Gibson Nungala, Sonda Turner, Samba Pultara, Kinlea Jungala, Elaine Namatjira, Helen Malbunka.
1989 - A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art] ; Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Papunya Tula: Contemporary Paintings from Australia's Western Desert, John Weber Gallery, New York, USA.
1988 - Dreamings, the art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York; The Fifth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1987 - Circle Path Meander, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Aboriginal Art from the Central Desert and Northern Arnhem Land, Community Arts Centre, Brisbane.
1985 - Dot and Circle, a retrospective survey of the Aboriginal acrylic paintings of Central Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne; The Face of the Centre: Papunya Tula Paintings 1971-1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
1984 - Painters of the Western Desert: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Paddy Carroll Tjungurrayi and Uta Uta Tjangala, Adelaide Arts festival; Aboriginal Art, an Exhibition Presented by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra.
1983 - The Alice Prize, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT, finalists exhibition
1983 - XVII Bienal de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo.
1981-82 - Aboriginal Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Australian Museum, Queensland Art Gallery; Perspecta (with Tim Leura), Sydney.
1980 - The Past and Present of the Australian Aborigine, Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles; Papunya Tula, Macquarie University Library, Sydney.
1974 - Anvil Art Gallery, Albury, New South Wales, Australia.
Bibliography:
Australian Aboriginal Art from the Collection of Donald Kahn, 1991, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA.
Australian Perspecta 1981, A Biennial Survey of Contemporary Australian Art, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1981
Bardon, G., 1979, Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert, Rigby, Adelaide. (C).
Bardon, G., 1991, Papunya Tula Art of the Western Desert, McPhee Gribble, Ringwood, Victoria. (C).
Bardon, Geoffrey., Papunya - A Place Made After the Story, Miegunyah Press, 2007, Melbourne.
Berndt, R. M. and Berndt, C. H. with Stanton, J., 1982, Aboriginal Australian Art, a Visual Perspective, Methuen Australia Pty Ltd, Sydney.
Brody, A., 1985, The face of the centre: Papunya Tula Paintings 1971-1984, NGV, Melbourne.
Caruana, W., 1987, Australian Aboriginal Art, a Souvenir Book of Aboriginal Art in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory. (C).
Caruana, W. (ed.), 1989, Windows on the Dreaming, Ellsyd Press, Sydney. (C).
Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (C).
Chanin, E., 1990, (ed.), Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Roseville, NSW, Australia.
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Paintings 1973-1986, exhib. cat., Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 1988
Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings Ltd., Perth, 1990
Cooper, C., Morphy, H., Mulvaney, D.J. and Petersen, N., 1981, Aboriginal Australia, Australian Gallery Directors Council, Sydney. (C).
Crossman, S. and Barou, J-P. (eds), 1990, L'ete Australien a Montpellier: 100 Chefs d'Oevre de la Peinture Australienne, Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France. (C).
Crumlin, R., (ed.), 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Collins Dove, North Blackburn, Victoria. (C).
Crocker, A. (ed.), 1981, Mr Sandman Bring Me a Dream, Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, Alice Springs and Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd, Sydney. (C).
Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria. .
Duerden, D., 1990, 'Clifford Possum in London', Art Monthly, August 1990, No. 33, P. 12.
Isaacs, J., 1984, Australia's Living Heritage, Arts of the Dreaming, Lansdowne Press, Sydney. (C).
Isaacs, J., 1989, Australian Aboriginal Paintings, Weldon Publishing, New South Wales..
Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales. (C).
Johnson, V., 1994, The Art of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Gordon and Breach Arts International limited, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW..
Johnson, V., 1995, 'Is there a gender issue in Aboriginal art?', Art & Australia, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 350-357.
Johnson, Vivien. Streets of Papunya: the re-invention of Papunya painting, NewSouth Press, 2015.
Johnson, Vivien. (Editor), Papunya Painting: Out of the Desert, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2007.
Neale, M., 1994, Yiribana, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. (C).
Maughan, J., and Zimmer, J., (eds), 1986, Dot and Circle, a Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Paintings of Central Australia, exhib. cat., Communication Services Unit, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne. (C).
McCulloch, A., & McCulloch, S., 1994, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, St Leonards, New South Wales..
Smith, B. with Smith T., 1991, Australian Painting 1788-1990, Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, .
Sutton, P. (ed.), 1988, Dreamings: the Art of Aboriginal Australia, Viking, Ringwood, Victoria. (C).
Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), exhib. cat., Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. (C), 1993
XVII Sao Paulo Biennale, exhib. cat., 1983
MARKET ANALYSIS
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjari’s career spanned more than 30 years, with his most prolific period occurring between 1983 and 2000, after he began working independently of Papunya Tula Artists. His highest prices at auction have predominantly come from early boards painted in the first two years of the Papunya movement, which account for six of his ten top prices.
The auction market for Clifford Possum, one of Australia’s most significant Indigenous artists, has shown considerable volatility over the past decade, with fluctuating sales volumes and total values that reflect a complex demand pattern for his work.
Clifford Possum’s place in the annals of Indigenous art was further solidified in 2007 when Sotheby’s announced the upcoming auction of his monumental 1977 masterpiece Warlugulong, estimated at A$1,800,000-2,500,000. This painting had a fascinating history, having been sold in April 1996 for just A$39,600. After being purchased by Hank Ebes, it was sold to the National Gallery of Australia for A$2,400,000, setting a record for Aboriginal artwork that is likely to endure for years. Since his death in 2002, average prices and numbers of works offered at auction have nearly doubled, although they started from a low base average of A$10,000 in the 1990s. Of the 578 paintings offered, only 334 (58%) sold, indicating collectors' reluctance to part with Clifford’s works at lower prices due to their belief that they are undervalued in the market.
While some contemporary collectors may find Possum’s imagery less appealing compared to currently successful artists, the lasting power and cultural significance evident in his best works may attract collectors with a more cultural focus as tastes evolve.
In 2015, the market was relatively stable, with 100 % clearance rate for only 5 offered works, generating a modest total of A$37,770. However, in 2016, both sales and unsold rates dipped, with only 3 works sold and 2 remaining unsold, resulting in a total of A$17,029. This signalled a challenging period for the artist’s market, with declining demand and lower sales values.
The market began to recover in 2017, with a significant increase in the number of works offered (21), though 7 remained unsold. The total value rose to A$115,715, reflecting renewed interest but also indicating a bifurcation in buyer interest—some works failing to meet expectations, while others sold at higher prices.
In 2018, the number of works offered rose to 26, but 8 remained unsold, leading to a total of A$63,122, a slight dip compared to the previous year. By 2019, however, the market saw a notable uptick in both volume and value. With 20 works offered and 4 unsold, the total value reached A$265,157, demonstrating stronger demand and higher sale prices.
The upward momentum continued into 2020, with 12 works offered and only 1 remaining unsold, resulting in a robust total of A$362,860. This marked a peak in Clifford Possum’s market for the decade, as both the low unsold rate and high total value suggested increasing confidence in his work among collectors.
However, the market saw another downturn in 2021, with 15 works offered and 60% clearance, resulting in a total of A$140,314. This sharp increase in unsold works indicates a potential oversupply or cooling interest. Despite a larger number of works offered in 2022 (20), the clearance rate remained at 65%, though the total value climbed to A$373,656, suggesting that while demand was selective, strong sales were still achievable for key pieces.
In 2023, the trend continued with 25 works offered, of which 7 remained unsold, generating a lower total of A$144,847. This suggests that while Clifford Possum’s market remained active, the pricing and demand dynamic continued to fluctuate. By 2024, the market contracted again, with only 9 works offered and 3 unsold, leading to a total of A$60,713, the lowest in recent years. This signals a continued cooling of demand or a shift in collector focus away from Possum’s works.
Overall, Clifford Possum’s market has experienced notable peaks and troughs over the past decade. While there have been strong years, particularly in 2019 and 2020, the inconsistency in auction results reflects changing collector preferences and a selective market for his works. The fluctuating unsold rates suggest that while certain key pieces can command high prices, many works may struggle to meet expectations, leading to a bifurcated market performance.
Clifford Possum’s artistic legacy, while vast and uneven, ensures that his best works are viewed as valuable in the current market. Buyers must exercise caution regarding provenance, ensuring that the paintings attributed to him are indeed authentic, as misattributed works can still hold desirability, albeit at a potentially diminished value.
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