Tjukurrpa Palurukutu, Kutjupawana Palyantjanya: same stories a new way

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Tjukurrpa Palurukutu, Kutjupawana Palyantjanya: same stories a new way

Artist Papunya Tula Artists

Publisher Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd

Printer Firebox Print Studio (Dian Darmansjah)

Place of OriginAustralia | Pintupi language group

Date2009

DimensionsSheets (38): H: 21 5/8 in. (55 cm); W: 17 11/16 in. (45 cm).
Sheets (2): H: 17 11/16 in. (45 cm); W: 15 3/4 in. (40 cm).
Image size varies slightly.

MediumPrint, etching on Hahnemuhle rag paper.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of Sara Jane DeHoff

Object number

2013.185A-NN

Not on View

DescriptionForty individual etchings printed on Hahnemühle rag paper shipped in a portfolio. Thirty-eight of the prints are on 55 x 45 cm sheets on which the print size varies. The remaining two prints are on 45 x 40 cm sheets. The prints range in coloration from black and white to vibrant orange, yellow, and red hues of startling intensity. All the prints are signed and inscribed with a blind stamp of the Firebox Print Studio logo.

Label TextAboriginal Australian art traditionally has been integrated into the landscape and community in forms such as rock art, sand painting, and body art for tens of thousands of years. Its expansion into painting on board occurred in 1971–72, when a group of artists at Papunya in the Western Desert created small acrylic paintings for sale to the public, sparking what is today known as the Western Desert Art movement. This selection of 10 etchings from the portfolio Same stories, a new way, created by the Papunya Tula artist collective, represents a further broadening of the group’s artmaking. Rather than copies of paintings on a smaller scale, these vibrant prints demonstrate the artists’ skillful adaptation of Papunya Tula visual language into a new medium. Each composition, through its repeated pattern of lines, shapes, and dots, relates to a topographical area, vegetation, ceremony, or sacred site familiar to the artists’ indigenous culture. For example, the hypnotic effect created by Yakari Napaltjarri’s alternating rows of red, oragne, and cream/white dots suggest the desert sandhills that surround the sacred water site Ngaminya. Similarly, in Wintjiya Napaltjarri's composition, the bands of irregular lozenge shapes recall individual units of the ceremonial hairstring skirt, nyimparra, as well as the rhythmic movement with which it is associated. Both images exemplify the etching technique's ability to produce bold designs through lines that can be wire-like and delicate or dense and thick.Exhibition History

Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Papunya Tula: Works on Paper, December 13, 2012 – March 24, 2013.