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Australia's Western Desert art on display in Canberra



Drill Hall Gallery at the Australian National University is holding an exhibition called Streets of Papunya: the re-invention of Papunya painting, which presents the new generation of artists from the epicentre of Western Desert art.

Papunya is a settlement in the Western Desert, 260 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs in Central Australia. About 50 years ago, Papunya artists revolutionized the Australian art movement. In 1972, with school teacher Geoffrey Barton, a band of artists from Papunya founded the Papunya Tula Artists. These pioneering artists included Albert Namatjira and Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. The Papunya Tjupi Arts Centre, established in 2007 in Alice Springs, celebrates the renaissance of their ancestral artists.

Generations of Western Desert artists have handed down designs that represent sacred geographical maps of their homeland. These designs provide the motifs in their paintings. While the Elder generation of artists were predominantly men, women artists are now conspicuously more prominent in the younger generation. While the Elder generation of Papunya artists experimented with western techniques of painting landscapes, the younger generation mainly follow the methods of dots and motifs of their homeland.

Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) painted Alumbaura (Haasts Bluff) northside from Papunya in 1959 – a few days before he died – although he painted as early as 1939.




Snake Family Dreaming near Snake Hole, late January 1972 is the painting school teacher Geoffrey Barton commissioned Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi (1920-1987) to paint for him. Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula (1918-2001) painted Yala, Wild Potato Dreaming in 1981.




Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932-2002) painted Untitled – Mt. Wedge and Lake Leura in 1988 from his studio in New York. Daisy Leura Nakamarra (1932-) was the first female Papunya artist to have her work acquired by a major public art gallery. The painting below is Women’s Dreaming at Ilpilli (1983). Tilau Nangala (1933-) painted the red Mikantji in 2013.






Below is Women’s ceremonial designs at Tutu Tutu (1983) by Two Bob Tjungurrayi (1940-2000), Warlukuritji (2013) by Martha MacDonald Napaltjarri (1941-), and Tjurrpinyi (Swimming Love Story at Haasts Bluff) (2012) by Doris Bush Nungarrayi (1942-), who met her husband and tracker George Bush Tjangala at the waterhole. William Sandy’s (1944-) Emu Dreaming at Kanpi in 1989 (above).







Narlie Nelson Nakamurra (1948-) tells the story of rain and hail in Kalipinypa (Water Dreaming) (2009).



Punata Stockman Nungarrayi (1956-) painted Ilpitirri (Mt. Denison) in 2015. Charlotte Phillipus Napurrula (1957) painted Kapi Tjukurrpa – Kalipinypa in 2015. Isobel Gorey Nambajimba (1958-) painted Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) – Watulpunya in 2013, featuring white (rarely used in desert scenes) and lace-like effects on indigo backgrounds.






Candy Nelson Nakamarra (1964-), daughter of Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrual, painted Kalipinypa (2010) – lightning, thunderclouds and rain – and Kalipinypa (2013) – blue rain with footprints of the white egret (heron).





Beyula Puntungka Napanangka (1966-) painted Kalinykalinypa Tjukurrpa (Honey Grevillea Story) in 2013. Mary Roberts Nakamarra (1974) painted Yalka Tjukurrpa (Bush Onion) – Murini in 2015.





The artworks are from the university’s Antrhopology and Archaeology department and the College of Asia and the Pacific. This joint exhibition between the ANU Drill Hall Gallery, the University of New South Wales, and Papunya Tjuipi Arts – curated by Vivien Johnson – will be displayed from 15 July to 14 August 2016.









http://dhg.anu.edu.au/events/streets-of-papunya-15-july-14-august/



 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).



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