Clifford Possum, 70; Australian Aboriginal Woodcarver, Painter
Clifford Possum, 70, one of the first Australian aboriginal artists to gain an international following, died June 21 in Alice Springs, Australia.
The cause of death was not announced by his family.
Known as Kumuntjayi Tjapaltjarri to the members of his Ammatyerre tribe, Possum adopted his nontribal name after a Lutheran missionary rescued him from starvation.
With no formal education, he become proficient first at woodcarving while working on a cattle ranch for 15 years.
He took up painting in the early 1970s and developed a style that mixed spiritualism and abstraction.
His better pieces would eventually sell for as much as $20,000 each. One Possum painting, a 1972 landscape, was purchased at auction last year for $68,000.
In 1980, his art had its first U.S. exhibition in Los Angeles.
His work is now included in the collections of the University of Miami’s art museum, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and the Kelton Foundation in Santa Monica.
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