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Community: Papunya Tula
The development of contemporary aboriginal art, has it's roots in this community. In 1971, Aboriginal artists began to transfer ceremonial designs, that were traditionally expressed as body painting, sand painting and for the decoration of utilitarian objects, onto boards and canvas using acrylic paint. This expression on portable mediums has resulted in a greater appreciation and understanding of Aboriginal art and culture, while simultaneously providing greater economic and culture independence for desert communities. Established in 1960 under assimilationist policies, Papunya became the home to a number of tribal groups. The majority of people were Pintupi, but included Walpiri, Arrernte, Luritja and Anmatyerre groups.
The beginning of the acrylic painting movement began under the encouragement of newly arrived schoolteacher Geoffrey Bardon in 1971. Between 1971 and 1972 Bardon, an art teacher, arranged for a number of murals that used traditional designs to be painted on the walls of the school and encouraged local Aboriginal elders to participate in their execution. The success of the murals created an impetus to continue painting. Aboriginal elders could see these new mediums as a useful tool in educating the younger generation and reminding them of their heritage. Bardon was more than happy to oblige, providing materials such as acrylic paint and board.
The first paintings were small sheets of Masonite, they were often irregularly shaped and there was much experimentation with the use of the strong pure colours that acrylic paint provided. Within three years the artists began creating larger images on canvas, the paintings are worked flat on the ground and from all sides, much as a traditional sand painting would be constructed for ceremony. Although they often depict sites they are not maps in the traditional European sense, scale and orientation of various sites is a compositional and spiritual consideration rather than a literal interpretation. Many of the early paintings also used naturalistic representations, for instance depicting figures with body designs. But due to the sacred nature of the stories being depicted, these literal representations have since been minimised, symbols that can contain multiple meanings are preferred as they allow for important stories to be painted and their open interpretation allows for a public and private meaning
such as roundlets were employed, the multiple meanings of these symbols allowed for important stories to be painted, with a private and a public meaning.
With the mounting interest in desert art, many aboriginal elders had growing concerns about allowing the sacred imagery to be seen by the general public, and it was through these concerns the dot style of painting was born. The dots used in aboriginal paintings like much desert iconography can have simultaneous and multiple meanings depending upon the context, initiation level of the viewer and artist, or the dreamtime story being depicted. For example, they can represent rain, stars, burnt ground, clouds, changes in the landscape, as a field in which the action of the painting takes place and its visually stimulating optical effects may also be used to invoke the supernatural power of the earth and ancestral beings.
Originally dotting was used to outline design elements in ritual painting of the body, and was used in a similar manner with early acrylic paintings. Due to the no transient nature of the new medium early senior painters, among them Yala Yal Gibbs, Mick Tjapaltjarri and John Tjpurrula began using dotting to mask important symbolism that is inappropriate for the uninitiated to view. Papunya has produced some of the most captivating desert art for information on Papunya.
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