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Art

Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya

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Thanks be to the senior Aboriginal Australian painters who gave their blessing for this superlative, uber-rare exhibition spotlighting the early work of the Western Desert art movement. The back story is such: in 1971 at a government relief camp called Papunya in the central Australian desert, a group of indigenous elders (read: men) began to record sacred designs on boards as opposed to the more ephemeral media of sand and flesh. Based on Tjukurrpa (the Dreaming) — the belief that creator-ancestors are responsible for the world as is — these layered, symbol-laden beauties are incredible for their contorted forms and their ornamental details, particularly Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula's exquisite mosaic, Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa.

– Jason Jude Chan

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