Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula Pintupi and Luritja peoples Travelling Water Dreaming with lightning 1971 natural earth pigments and Boncrete on composition board 83 x 38 cm purchased 2013 © the artist represented by Aboriginal Artists Agency
Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa Anmatyerre, Warlpiri and Arrernte peoples Corroboree and body decoration 1972 natural earth pigments and Boncrete on composition board 41 x 20 cm purchased 2013 © the estate of the artist represented by Aboriginal Artists Agency
the significant Honey Ant mural being painted on the local school wall that year. The Papunya Tula Artists Company was formed in late 1972 and is, to this day, solely owned and directed by the artists of the community. The first Papunya work acquired by the Gallery was Old Mick Tjakamarra’s 1973 work Honey Ant Dreaming. It was purchased in 1980, less than a decade after Papunya was recognised by the Western world as the first Aboriginal art movement—despite the designs, associated stories and ceremonies being practised by the community for thousands of years. Tjakamarra was a custodian of the Honey Ant Dreaming and, with others from the community, he had contributed to the mural of 1971. The second of the Gallery’s Papunya boards was not acquired until nine years later, in 1989. The work was David Corby Tjapaltjarri’s Budgerigar Dreaming, which was also painted around 1973. This acquisition was quickly followed by another seven in the same year and later by another twenty-one works in 1993. Then, in 1998, a significant collection of forty-one works were acquired as part of the Peter Fannin collection of early Western Desert paintings, adding greatly to the Gallery’s growing collection of Papunya works. Since then, numerous works from the movement have been acquired and today the Gallery’s significant Papunya collection, acquired over the past thirty-three years, shows the commitment to acquiring and showcasing the best of the works by these senior male artists of Australia’s first Aboriginal art movement. Tina Baum Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art
ACQUISITION | ARTONVIEW 41