Dimensions
246 x 299 x 44mm
In 1971, a hopeful, young art teacher drove the long, lonely road from Alice Springs to the Aboriginal outpost settlement at Papunya. His name was Geoffrey Bardon. Eighteen months later, he left Papunya, defeated by a hostile white authority. But his legacy was the beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement.
What started as an exercise to encourage the Aboriginal schoolchildren to record their sand patterns and games grew to involve, at the peak of creativity, as many as 30 tribal men and elders. With Bardon's encouragement, these men worked to preserve their traditional Dreamings and stories in paint.
Papunya: A Place Made After the Story is a first-hand account of the artists and the works emanating from Papunya. Bardon's exquisitely recorded notes and drawings are here reproduced showing his extensive documentation of the early stages of the painting movement. This book features more than 500 paintings, drawings and photographs from Bardon's personal archive.
