Born around 1938 at Haasts Bluff, Turkey and his family lived a
blend of traditional life and white settlement life. His family drifted
around traditional country near Kintore and the Hermannsburg Mission.
Shortly after Turkey was born his family stayed in the area of Haasts
Bluff.
When the Papunya settlement was established
and began to grow, Turkey and his family came from the bush and settled
there. This was in 1959 shortly after Turkey's initiation into
manhood. Turkey then worked as a laborer on the new constructions and
moved to an outstation near Papunya. After his first wife died, he
moved back to Papunya and joined the local and growing artist group.
This was in 1971, the beginning of the Aboriginal Art Movement. Being
one of the youngest artists involved with the beginning of the Papunya
Tula Art movement in 1971, he was influenced by many of the older
artists. He then took this knowledge and developed his own unique style
with his interpretation of the Dreamings; emerging as one of the stars
of the Papunya Tula Art Movement.
Though firmly based in traditional culture,
Turkey Tolson was one of the first non-urban artists to use western
mediums and techniques to create landscapes in the European Manner. By
working outside of the traditional Aboriginal framework, Turkey was
able to develop both methods of expression.
Returning to his traditional form, Turkey
created austere compositions which speak beyond the intellect and
directly to the spirit. Using lines, arcs, hatch motifs and
occasionally dots, he camouflages his ancestral designs and marks from
the uninitiated. Each painting has individual significance and
importance. This style is the classical severely traditional Pintupi
style of circles and connecting lines. Turkey is one of the few who
paints using the best of all worlds
"I think about my work and my painting. I
think about my father's place and I put it in my memory. I think about
how I'm going to paint. I started painting a long time ago. Different
styles, each time a different style. I change my style from painting
to painting."
Turkey paints the Bush Fire, Emu, Snake, Woman
and Mitukutajarrayi Dreamings, which are from his traditional country
South of Kintore around Yuwalki, Mitukutajarrayi and Putjya Rock Hole.
Within Turkey's paintings there is the idea that the whole cluster
involved, the songs, the ceremonies, the body painting, the ground
painting, the place itself, plus the whole human heritage that it
represents (Turkey's and his father's lives) can be absorbed by the
experience of viewing the work. Turkey’s work is important to the
spirituality of this land and bridging the gap between western and
traditional art.
Turkey’s work has been exhibited extensively
throughout Australia and overseas. Turkey was an artist in residence at
Flinders University in 1979 and featured in the documentary ‘Market of
Dreams‘. Others shows include 1977 Nigerian Festival, Lagos, Nigeria;
1981 ‘Mr Sandman Bring Me a Dream,‘ touring exhibition; 1982 Brisbane
Festival; 1985 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; 1985 Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne; 1985 Art Gallery of South
Australia; 1988 Expo ’88, Brisbane; 1988 Asia Society Galleries, New
York, USA; 1990 National Gallery of Modern Art , Rome; 1991 National
Gallery of Australia, Canberra; 1991 Auckland City Art Gallery, New
Zealand; 1993 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany;
1992\3 ‘New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from
Aboriginal Australia’ toured the U.S.A; 1993 Hayward Gallery, London;
1993 Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark; 1995 Groninger
Museum, The Netherlands; 1995 Susquchanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, USA;
1997 ’Dreampower’, Adelaide. In 1997 Turkey Tolson and Joseph Jurra
Tkapaltjarri traveled to Paris to create a sandpainting as part of the
exhibition 'Peintres Aborigenes d'Australie' at the Establissement
Public du Parc de la Grande Halle de la Villette. 1998 ‘Sztuka
Aborygenow,‘ (Art of the Aborigines), Warsaw, Poland; 1999 Flinders Art
Museum Flinders University, Adelaide; 1999 Embassy of Australia,
Washington, USA.; 2000 ‘Genesis and Genius’ exhibition, Art Gallery of
New South Wales; 2001 ‘Icons of Australian Aboriginal Art,’ Singapore;
2001 Galerie Knud Grothe, Charlottenlund, Denmark; 2001/2 ‘Recounting
the Essence of Life: Art from Australia’, Kunstforum HDZ, Germany. In
2001/2 after the artist’s death earlier in the year the Art Gallery of
New South Wales held a solo exhibition ‘Ngurra Kutu’ (Going Home) as a
tribute to the passing of this desert master. In 2003 Turkey was
included in the show ‘Big Country: Works from the Flinders University
Art Museum Collection’, Flinders University City Gallery, Adelaide.
Recent international exhibitions include 2001-2004 ‘Mythology and
Reality: Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi
Collection’ which toured Palazzo Bricherasio Turin, Italy; AAM Utrecht,
Netherlands; Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts, Israel; SH
Ervin Gallery, Sydney; Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne,
Australia.
Turkey is represented in all major Australian
collections and many overseas, including: National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra; National Museum of Australia, Canberra; National
Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of South Australia,
Adelaide; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; South Australian Museum,
Adelaide; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Berndt Museum of
Anthropology, University of Western Australia, Perth; Flinders
University Art Museum, Adelaide; Papunya Tula Artists; Westpac Gallery,
Melbourne; Artbank; National Gallery of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan;
Hudson River Museum, New York, USA; Robert Holmes a' Court Collection;
The Kelton Foundation Santa Monica, USA.
Turkey Tolson passed away in 2001 and will be remembered for the
enormous contribution he made to Aboriginal art in Australia as one of
the founding desert masters.