Tommy Yannima Watson was a major Pitjantjatara artist, born in Anumarapiti - desert land west of the Irrunytju Community (also known as Wingellina) in Western Australia. Tommy Watson was a Law man of the Karima skin group, and his traditional names of Yannima and Pikarli relate to specific sites near his birthplace.
Tommy Watson’s parents and uncle died when he was young, so he was adopted by Nicodemus Watson, his father’s first cousin. Like many Westerd Desert Aboriginal people, the lives of Watson and his family were drastically affected by assimilation policies introduced by the government. These policies, combined with the severe drought throughout the 1950s, forced many Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra and Pintupi Aborigines to leave their ancestral lands and move into government-run centres such as Warburton, Ernabella and Papunya. The unfamiliar world of these administrative settlements was no place for free, nomadic people whose lives had always been defined by constant movement. They became disoriented, and many struggled to adapt. Tragically, more than half of the population of these new communities died. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, most returned to their traditional homelands.
Tommy was settled at the Ernabella Mission, where he lived a bush life travelling through the Musgrave Ranges and Petersham Ranges, surrounding the mission. These wanderings embedded in him a deep knowledge of the country, both on a physical and spiritual level.
In his adult years Watson worked as a stockman and labourer on cattle stations around Uluru in the 1960s and 70s. Watson also travelled to other communities, including Hermannsburg where he witnessed Albert Namatjira - the trailblazer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art - paint his famous watercolours. Watson also travelled to the community of Papunya when the pioneers of the western desert art movement first set down their powerful expressions of their Tjukurrpa (Dreaming). So, whilst Tommy Watson did not begin to paint until his 60s, he was well aware of the Aboriginal art movement. In his mid 60s, Tommy Watson began painting at Irrunytju art centre with a small group of artists who set up there in 2001. He became quickly recognised for his powerful use of colour and energetic canvases, which were exhibited in Alice Springs at Desert Mob and in Darwin at the Telstra NATSIAA Art Awards. His work became highly collectable and his reputation continued to strengthen. In 2006 he was among eight Aboriginal artists whose work was integrated into the Quai Branly Museum in Paris.
Receiving critical acclaim in Australia and internationally, Watson has been compared by art critics to Western abstract painters such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Rothko. His works are held in public and private collections worldwide.
Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris