• Gallery
  • Consultancy
  • Marketplace
  • About
  • News
  • Contact
  • Keep Informed
  • More...
    • About
    • News
    • Contact
    • Keep Informed
MENU
  • Gallery
    • Artists
    • Artworks
    • Exhibitions
    • Gift Registry
    • Talks & Tours
    • Search Artworks
  • Consultancy
    • Valuations
    • Collections Management
    • Art Buying
    • Project Work
    • Lectures & Talks
  • Marketplace
    • Market Status
    • Artists
    • Artworks
    • Auctions
    • Marketplace Explained
    • Selling
    • Buying
    • Search Artworks
  • About
    • Consultant Team
    • Adrian Newstead
    • The Dealer is The Devil
    • Media & Reviews
    • Buying from CooeeArt
  • News
    • Industry Articles & Reviews
    • How to Collect Aboriginal Art
    • Art Resources
    • Calendar
  • Contact
  • Keep Informed

Fine Art Gallery

Australia's oldest exhibiting Aboriginal art gallery

  • Artists
  • Artworks
  • Exhibitions
  • Gift Registry
  • Talks & Tours
  • Search Artworks
  • Favourites

Search Artworks

  • Hide

Use left and right sliders to adjust LOW and HIGH price

x cm

Leave empty or type-in a single keyword to search in artist name

Leave empty or type-in a single keyword to search in work title or work description.


Leave empty or type-in Cooee catalogue numbers (digits only) separated by commas eg: 1463,3119 to find selected works. Search by numbers is exclusive of catgory search above.

Artworks BY Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Sort by
Price High to Low
  • Price High to Low
  • Price Low to High
  • Latest In
  • Size

AIAM Rank 34
AIAM Rating 4.6287

Artist Profile

Pitjantjatjara elder Bill Whiskey began creating his finely dotted, colourful canvases in 2004 when already in his mid 80s. He was born in near Pirrulpakalarintja outstation at Pirupa Alka, 130 km south of the stunning mountains and rock formations of Kata Juta (the Olgas) and, in search for food and water, moved with his family to Uluru (Ayers Rock) during his adolescence. Whiskey returned to his tribal land with his family after their first contact with white people ended in conflict, and continued to live a nomadic tribal existence throughout his childhood. By the time he was a young man, his father and a number of his immediate family had passed away and he joined a group of people who made the journey to Haasts Bluff mission, about 250 km to the northeast. Due, in part, to his earlier experience, he was afraid of white people, but after a restive period during which he continued his wanderings, he eventually settled at the mission and married Colleen Nampitjinpa, a Luritja woman with whom he eventually had five children. He worked at Areyonga, being paid in rations for labouring, clearing land and building as well as mustering and cooking but eventually returned to Haasts Bluff until, with Colleen and their children, he eventually moved to the outstation of Amunturungu (Mt. Liebig) during the 1980’s. Over the following decades Bill and Colleen’s renown as skilled healers, or ngangkari, spread far and wide and they became greatly respected for their traditional knowledge and authority. Despite the connotations inherent in his name he was actually a non-smoking teetotaller who initially came to be called Whiskers due to his long flowing white beard and, no doubt due to his own wry humour, the name eventually evolved into Whiskey.

The Pitjantjatjara were amongst the last of the Central and Western Desert people to embrace the Desert painting movement. For the most part they had resisted the move to painting their sacred Dreaming stories on canvas for public display and sale until the 1990’s. Whiskey himself did not begin painting until the last four years of his life and, despite his age, was able to complete a number of large canvases amongst an oeuvre of no more than 200 works.

His subjects included his early travels and also the mythic battle related in the Cockatoo Dreaming that occurred at his birthplace, Pirupa Alka. This ancestral story involves three birds: the white cockatoo, his friend the eagle and the aggressive black crow that attacked the cockatoo in order to steal his witchetty grubs. During a terrible battl white feathers were scattered about and the landscape became indented by the entangled birds crashing to the ground several times. Subterranean streams filled these impressions with water and a circular amphitheatre was created by the sweep of wings. The badly wounded cockatoo was helped by his friend the eagle, which chased the crow away and brought scraps of kangaroo meat for the injured bird to eat. From a large protruding rock, Katamala Cone, the eagle still watches the area protectively while a large, central, glowing white rock signifies the fallen cockatoo, still sipping the life-giving water from the sacred pools. Colourful blues, yellows, reds and greens, always tempered by cockatoo white, represent the wildflowers that grow in profusion after rain. In keeping with the depiction of Dreaming stories throughout the Western Desert, the mythic and numinous is inherent within the sacred geography. By implication human survival in the harsh desert environment has been due to the knowledge embodied by ancient wisdom passed down through the millennia.

Bill Whiskey’s bold bright painting style reflected his indomitable spirit. At 80 years of age he was widely renowned as a powerful healer and keeper of sacred knowledge. His paintings, the first to depict the major Dreaming story and the creation of major sites throughout his country, are imbued with authority and steeped in traditional knowledge.   

Continue Reading ...
Rockholes Near the Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes Near the Olgas - 2008

25 x 38 cm
#18587 LOCATION: Offsite AUS
$2,500.00

Rockholes and Country near the Olga's  by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes and Country near the Olga's

180.0 x 180.0 cm
#14877
SOLD

Rockholes and Country near the Olga's  by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes and Country near the Olga's - 2008

151.0 x 151.0 cm
#14804
SOLD

Rockholes and Country near the Olga's  by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes and Country near the Olga's

155 x 155 cm
#16166
SOLD

Rock Holes and Country Near The Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rock Holes and Country Near The Olgas - 2007

90 x 45 cm
#17134
SOLD

Rockholes and Country near Ayers Rock and the Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes and Country near Ayers Rock and the Olgas - 2006

90 x 46 cm
#17932
SOLD

Rockholes Near the Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes Near the Olgas - 2008

25 x 51 cm
#18574
SOLD

Rockholes Near the Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes Near the Olgas - 2008

38 x 25 cm
#18575
SOLD

Rockholes Near the Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes Near the Olgas - 2007

25 x 38 cm
#18588
SOLD

Rockholes Near the Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes Near the Olgas - 2008

30.5 x 30.5 cm
#18576
SOLD

Rockholes Near the Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes Near the Olgas - 2008

30.5 x 30.5 cm
#18578
SOLD

Rockholes Near the Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes Near the Olgas - 2008

30.5 x 30.5 cm
#18579
SOLD

Rockholes Near the Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes Near the Olgas - 2008

30.5 x 30.5 cm
#18581
SOLD

Rockholes Near The Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes Near The Olgas - 2008

184 x 275 cm
#14365
SOLD

Rockholes near Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes near Olgas - 2007

155.0 x 68.0 cm
#7101
SOLD

Rockholes near Olgas by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes near Olgas - 2007

125.0 x 40.0 cm
#7102
SOLD

Rockholes near Olgas 2007 by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Rockholes near Olgas 2007

180.0 x 180.0 cm
#7103
SOLD


Loading Loading...
    © coo-ee art 2000 - 2021
  • Bondi Beach Gallery
    31 Lamrock Ave. Bondi Beach, NSW 2026
  • p. +61 (02) 9300 9233
    e. info@cooeeart.com.au
     
  • MarketPlace Auctions
    Showroom: To be confirmed
    Opening Hours: "Open only by appointment only during the Covit-19 restrictions.”
    p. +61 (02) 9300 9233
Coo-ee Gallery 
  • High Investment Artworks
  • Artworks Under $5000
  • Artworks Under $500
  • New Artworks
  • Artworks Search
  • Exhibitions
Coo-ee Consultancy 
  • Valuations
  • Collection Management
  • Art Buying
  • Adrian Newstead | Arts News
  • The Dealer is The Devil
  • About Adrian Newstead
  • Keep Informed
Coo-ee Marketplace
  • Aboriginal Art Market
  • Artists Top 100
  • Secondary Market Artworks
  •  
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • News

Keep Informed

Alert goes here

Subscribe to our email newsletters to keep informed.
Select the categories you would like to subscribe/unsubscribe to from the options below.


Modal Enquire

Alert goes here

Thank you for your interested in this/these items.

Please fill in the details below and one of our friendly staff members will get back to you shortly.

There is always a chance that another collector may get in before you and it is no longer available. If this is the case then our staff may make a suggestion that you might just like even more!



Comments or questions


Terms & Conditions

To understand all about our shipping, returns and payment policies click here.


Yes sign me up to the mailing lists


Delivery Options


Payment Options

To understand all about our shipping, returns and payment policies click here.

Modal Send

Alert goes here

Thank you for your interest in this/these items



Comments

Note: If name {placeholders} in comments are NOT edited they will be replaced by names entered in form