Aboriginal Art - Regions and Communities

Regions List of Main Points Artists ArtworkDeserts Papunya

240 kl west of Alice Springs. Papunya was where the Central and Western Desert Art Movement began in 1971 when a school teacher, Geoffrey Bardon, encouraged some of the men to paint a blank school wall. Honey Ant Dreaming. The murals sparked tremendous interest in the community and soon many men started painting. In 1972 the artists successfully established their own company, Papunya Tula Artists.

Clifford Possum

Turkey Tolson

Caterpillar Dreaming

Two Women Mythology

Hermannsburg

Hermannsburg pottery is now a famous feature of this community of 800 Western Arrernte people, located 130 kilometres west of Alice Springs.Pottery was first introduced to the Aboriginal artists of Hermannsburg in the 1960s by missionaries.In a small pottery studio in the centre

Albert Namatjira

Valley Ghost Gums,Macdonnell Ranges

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of the community the Hermannsburg Potters have forged their own unique type of ceramics.Their distinctive style features small figures of birds, animals, lizards or plants which are sculpted onto the lid as well as painted onto the body of the pot.

Carol Rontji

Rona Rubuntja

Iyah (emu)

Nteta (Wild Flowers)

Yuendumu

Yuendumu paintings are well known for their bright colours and complex, interwoven patterns. The Yuendumu community lies 280 kilometres north west of Alice Springs along the red, dusty Tanami Track.The modern Yuendumu painting movement began in the early 1980s following the distribution of art materials by Francoise Dussart and

Paddy Japaljarri Sims

Paddy Sims at work

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Meredith Morris.By 1985 the Warlukurlangu Artists Association was formed to support and market the works.

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart

Painted the original Papunya school murals

Utopia

Utopia region is located 240 kilometres north east of Alice Springs. Artists from Utopia played an important part in the campaign by the claimants in the late 1970s to establish their traditional ownership of the country through their cultural connections to it. The Utopia artists, primarily women, began working with fabric decoration. They combined traditional designs with western craft practices, beginning with batik in the 1970s. The batik project started in 1978.

The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) took over the running and finances of the Utopia artists and in 1988 commissioned a number of batik works.

Emily Kam Kngwarreye

Gloria Petyarre

Big Yam Dreaming

Bush Medicine

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Aboriginal Art online - http://www.aboriginalartonline.com/regions/regions.php

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Regions List of Main Points Artists ArtworkKimberley The Kimberley region of northern

Western Australia is a vast region covering more than 400 000 square kilometres.Warmun is located in the east Kimberley, the east Kimberley paintings, with their planes of brown, black and yellow ochre defined by white and black dots, are strikingly different from central and western desert paintings. Kimberley artists paint maps of their country and look beneath the surface to the structure of the land. Within this distinctive vision of their country, artists often include ancestor figures and modern or historical events of significance to their community.In the late 1970s and early 1980s the artists of Warmun were increasingly productive, but they had no organised means to sell their work. Waringarri arts in Kununurra was the first Aboriginal art centre to be established in the Kimberley to meet this need. It was initiated in 1985, and officially opened in 1988 as an outlet for Kimberley Aboriginal artists under their own control.

Rover Thomas

(Joolama) (b. c1926; d.1998)

Queenie McKenzie

(1915- 1998)

Freddy Timms

Dingo Dreaming 1996

Goowardaballi - Place on Texas Downs Station.- Ochres on Canvas

Damper Creek (Bow River)

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Map of Kimberley

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