Papunya Tula Artists, Western Desert, Northern Territory
In August 1971, Kaapa Tjampitjinpa's painting Men's Ceremony for the Kangaroo, Gulgardi jointly won the Caltex Golden Jubilee Art Award in Alice Springs, judged equal in quality to a work by a European artist. It was the first time an Aboriginal Australian had won a contemporary art award. A month earlier, Kaapa and a group of senior men at Papunya, 240km north-west of Alice Springs, had painted a monumental mural on the school wall depicting the Honey Ant Dreaming under the encouragement of schoolteacher Geoffrey Bardon. The mural, and the Caltex prize, sparked a wave of painting in the community. On 16 November 1972, the artists incorporated their own company at a gathering near Alice Springs, naming it Papunya Tula after a small hill near Papunya that is a Honey Ant Dreaming site shared by all groups across the Western Desert. It was the first entirely Aboriginal-owned and directed art company in Australia, and the founding event of the Western Desert Art Movement.
Papunya had been established by the Australian government in 1959, relocating Pintupi, Luritja, Warlpiri, Arrernte and Anmatyerre peoples from their traditional lands. The artists were not custodians of the ground beneath the school wall. The Honey Ant Mural was eventually painted over by authorities. Despite this, Papunya Tula Artists persisted through the 1970s and by the 1980s had secured national gallery exhibitions. By the late 1980s the work had been shown in New York, London, Paris and Venice. In 1983, following the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976, many Pintupi artists returned to their traditional country and established the communities of Kintore (Walungurru), 530km west of Alice Springs, and Kiwirrkurra further west still. Papunya Tula Artists now operates studios in both communities across a span of 700km, as well as a gallery in Alice Springs. The company has approximately 50 shareholders and represents around 80 artists, predominantly Pintupi and Luritja. In 2007, a painting by Papunya Tula artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri sold at auction for £1.03 million, then a record for Aboriginal art. Sales revenue funds community services including the Purple House mobile dialysis program and the Kintore swimming pool.
Papunya Tula Artists at a glance
- Location: Studios in Kintore (Walungurru) and Kiwirrkurra, Western Desert; gallery in Alice Springs
- Language groups: Pintupi and Luritja (predominantly)
- Established: 16 November 1972; first entirely Aboriginal-owned and directed art company in Australia
- Art forms: Acrylic painting on canvas and linen, works on paper
- Founding artists: Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri
- Collections: National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of NSW, Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), and major international collections
