Context (Production / use)
in 1971 a group of Aboriginal artists from the government settlement at Papunya, began painting traditional designs using acrylic paints and small boards. This marked the beginning of the Western Desert art movement that has become one of Australia’s most recognisable art forms.

Papunya Tula Artists, formed in 1972, was the first Indigenous owned art collective/ business. It is entirely owned and directed by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert, predominantly of the Luritja/Pintupi language groups. It currently represents around 120 artists.

'The Papunya Tula painting style derives directly from the artists’ knowledge of traditional body and sand painting associated with ceremony. Portraying these ancestral creation stories for the public has required the removal of sacred symbols and the careful monitoring of ancestral designs... The aim of the company is to promote individual artists, provide economic development for the communities to which they belong, and assist in the maintenance of a rich cultural heritage.'
Papunya Tula Artists accessed 22/04/2024
Event Date 1972
Author: rachel hand

Context (Field collection)
Purchased from the Papunya Tula Artist Company, 1986, by Sandy Nairne and gifted to Lisa Tickner, his wife.

Alexander 'Sandy' Nairne CBE FSA (b. 1953) was Director of the National Portrait Gallery from 2002 to 2015 and held senior roles at Tate for many years. He acquired works from the Papunya Tula Artists Company in May 1986 while in Australia making a Papunya-focused episode of a Channel 4 series, ’State of the Art’. This was to film with Michael Nelson Tjakamarra (c.1948/9-2020) (aka Kumantje Jagamara AM, Kumantje Nelson Jagamara and variations) an Aboriginal Australian painter. Tjakamarra was one of the most significant proponents of the Western Desert art movement and was exhibiting in the Biennale of Sydney that year and with whom Nairne had already recorded an interview (conducted in his first language of Warlpiri). This formed part of the 6th programme in the series made for Channel 4 and broadcast in early 1987.
Event Date 1986
Author: rachel hand

Context (References)
Sandy Nairne et al., State of the Arts, Ideas and images in the 1980’s, Chatto & Windus Ltd in collaboration with Channel Four Television Company Limited, 1987, cover, illus.
Event Date 1986
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Dot painting of women singing and eating bush tucker by Daisy Leura Nakamarra (Pintupi/Luritja/Anmatyerr peoples). Synthetic polymer paint on canvas painting board.
Event Date 15/2/2024
Author: rachel hand

Context (Analysis)
Daisy (b. c.1936) is a respected elder and believes in respecting the imagery relating to ceremony by keeping it out of her paintings. Her artwork invariably portrays native food themes. She was taught to paint by her husband Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, a founder of the painting movement at Papunya. The couple had moved to Papunya with their 6 children when the community building program commenced. Daisy joined Papunya Tula Artists in the early 1980s and became one of its first female artists to achieve recognition.
Event Date 15/2/2024
Author: rachel hand

Description (Inscription)
Inscription on rear in pen notes "Daisy Leura. Women, depicted by the U-shapes, are sitting at Kamparrapa [Kampurarrpa / Kampurrula], sing & eating witchetty grubs and bush berries & fruits. Shown are their digging sticks and coolamons. Also shown are the hair bands and pubic belts that they wear [intialled] AS"
Event Date 15/2/2024
Author: rachel hand

Description (Labels & Markings)
Papunya Tula certificate number 'DL860533' handwritten in black ball point pen in top right on rear.
Event Date 12/3/2025
Author: Rachel Hand