NYU's Grey Art Gallery to open "Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya" |
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| Written by Christine Urbeck |
| Tuesday, 25 August 2009 02:10 |
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In 1971, at Papunya, a government-established Aboriginal community in Central Australia, a Sydney-based schoolteacher provided a group of men with the tools and the encouragement to paint. Known as "Papunya boards," these works constituted the beginning of the Western Desert art movement, in which Indigenous Australian artists explore images and experiences with paint on permanent surfaces. With fewer than 600 in existence, these early boards enjoy a unique status within the history of Aboriginal art. Drawn from the John and Barbara Wilkerson Collection, the exhibition includes such masters of the Papunya School as Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi, Johnny WarangkulaTjupurrula, and Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri. Icons of the Desert and the accompanying catalogue were organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. The exhibition was curated by Roger Benjamin, Research Professor in Art History, Actus Foundation Lecturer in Aboriginal Art, Power Institute, University of Sydney. Visit The Grey Art Gallery at New York University at : http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/ Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
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