Papunya Tula

パプニャ・トゥラ / 1971– / Style / Regional Graphics

Elders of the Western Desert moved ceremonial sand designs onto acrylic and canvas. Fields of dots with concentric circles and journey lines paint Country as map-like knowledge, and the movement opened a place for Indigenous art within contemporary art.

Papunya Tula — Painting by Doreen Reid Nakamarra, documenta 13 installation view (CC BY-SA 3.0) · © David Gómez Fontanills
Painting by Doreen Reid Nakamarra, documenta 13 installation view (CC BY-SA 3.0) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © David Gómez Fontanills
Papunya Tula — Papunya painting by Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri 1996 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Sailko
Papunya painting by Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri 1996 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Sailko

At a glance

Visual cues

  • Fields of dots
  • Concentric circles and journey lines
  • Map-like aerial composition
  • The color range of the land

Best used for

  • Exhibitions and publishing made with the artists themselves and presented correctly
  • Interpretation and wayfinding for institutions handling knowledge of land

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Dictionary entry

Type
Set captions clear of the work and always name the artist and the Country
Composition
Compose from above, holding an even interval between circles and lines
Material
Acrylic dotted onto canvas in ochre red, yellow, white and black
Caution
Reusing the dotting as decorative pattern violates the knowledge and rights those signs carry, and is rightly criticized as cultural appropriation.
Further study
Geoffrey Bardon / Dreaming imagery and rights to depict / respect for Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property

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Cite this entry

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https://indexstyle.org/styles/papunya-tula
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[Papunya Tula — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/papunya-tula)
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<a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/papunya-tula">Papunya Tula — IndexStyle</a>

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