In 1971 Yala Yala knocked on the door of Geoffrey Bardon’s flat in search of painting materials and became one of the founding shareholders of Papunya Tula Artists and an important artist. His powerful early works eschew figuration and often feature white dotting upon a red ochre or black background.
An authority in ritual matters, he is also acknowledged for his large-format Tingarri compositions, characterised by dotted concentric circles and travelling paths.
He was one of the inventors of the “Tingari” painting style : grids of meticulously dotted concentric circles and connecting lines of travel , which dominated Pintupi men’s painting until the early 1990s. Yala Yala was an authority amongst the senior Pintupi men on ceremonial matters in this region.
His influence can be seen in the works of his wives Ningura and Yinarupa and his brothers Willy and George Wards and this ten Children. These Artist in turn influenced other woman painters in Kintore area.
He himself was Influenced by one of the Great Papunya Elders Uta Uta Tjangala who he assisted in the painting of the “Yumari” with ten others this was done in 1981 size 244cm * 366cm. . As one of the most senior and influential of the Pintupi Artists Uta Uta ‘always did the design he set everything down and he just had the helpers doing the fill in’.
Yala Yala Gibbs adopted the same approach in educating his assistants in painting and passing the sacred dreams to the next generation.
