Kumantje Jagamara

Kumantje Jagamara (the name preferred by his family) was born at Pikilyi, aka Vaughan Springs, Northern Territory (about west of Yuendumu), around 1946. His parents were both Walpiri and his father was an important "Medicine Man" in the Yuendumu community. He lived a traditional lifestyle, and his grandfather taught him sand-, body-, and shield-painting. He first saw white men at Mount Doreen Station, and remembers hiding in the bush in fear. Jagamara lived at Haasts Bluff for a time with the same family group as Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra. Later his parents took him to Yuendumu for European education at the mission school. ==Career==

He left school after initiation and spent some time working jobs such as pig shooting, driving trucks and droving cattle. He spent time in the Australian Army before coming back to Yuendumu and then moving to Papunya in 1976 (after the death of his father) to settle and marry which were used in the artwork. In 1985 he painted "Five Stories 1984". ==Style==

His painting style was initially meticulous dot-painting in the Papunya style, but he later simplified this, and by 2000 his work was described as "expressionistic and more "calligraphic" and flowing. His work and his life, Jagamara "held true to his jukurrpa", which involved the Warlpiri interconnected cultural knowledge system and its law, with especial connection to place. Pikilyi is an important sacred site for ceremonies, at the junction of a number of different Dreamings, which are represented in his art work, including Possum, Snake, Two Kangaroos, Flying Ant and Yam. ==Recognition, awards, honours==

He won the inaugural National Aboriginal Art Award (now known as the Telstra Award) in September 1984 His 1985 painting "Five Stories 1984" was one of the most reproduced works of Australian art in the 1980s. It was exhibited at the 1986 Biennale of Sydney, and was included in the South Australian Museum's Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured to the New York’s Asia Society Galleries in New York in 1988, Jagamara travelled to New York City with Billy Stockman Japaltjarri for the opening of the show, with £401,000 (AUD$687,877 at the time) paid for it at Sotheby's in London. ==Later life and legacy==

Jagamara died in November 2020, with his funeral in Alice Springs on 14 March 2021 attended by hundreds, including his longtime friend Vivien Johnson. A letter from the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, was read at the funeral. Jagamara was one of the most significant proponents of the Western Desert style of painting, which remains an important style of contemporary Indigenous Australian art. ==Exhibitions==

Jagamara has exhibited his work in many exhibitions (including several solo exhibitions) and these include: Redrock gallery and Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in Melbourne; Utopia Art Sydney; Australian National Gallery, Canberra; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; and John Weber Gallery, New York. ==Collections==

• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney • Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide • Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth • Australian Museum, Sydney • Broken Hill Art Gallery, Broken Hill, NSW • The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, California, US • Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, Charlottesville • Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin • National Gallery of Australia, Canberra • Parliament House, Canberra • Powerhouse Museum, Sydney • Queensland Art Gallery (QAGOMA), Brisbane ==References==