How does this artwork elucidate its Background?
Contemporary Indigenous Australian art originated with the Indigenous men of Papunya, located around 240 kilometres (150 mi) northwest of Alice Springs in Australia's Western Desert, who began painting in 1971. The youngest was Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, encouraged by his older brother Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri. A number of the men developed a distinctive style of narrative painting that, beginning around 1976, resulted in the production of several "monumental" works that included representations of both their traditional lands and of ceremonial iconography. Clifford Possum was the first to make this transition commencing with a related painting, also titled Warlugulong (1976), now held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The two images are amongst five that the artist created between 1976 and 1979 that linked the iconography of sacred stories to geographic representation of his country – the land to which he belonged and about which he had traditional knowledge. The artist's images of this period are visually complex, and contain a wide variety of patterns, unified by strong background motifs and structure.
Papunya Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Art Gallery of New South Wales sacred stories Contemporary Indigenous Australian art iconography Indigenous Australian traditional knowledge Indigenous Alice Springs Western Desert traditional lands Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri