''Ngurra Kutju Ngurrara - Belonging to One Country"

Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 16.10.10

The ReDot Fine Art Gallery is proud to welcome back the beautiful works of Australia’s foremost Aboriginal art community, Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, in what will be the 7th showing in Singapore of the stunning works of the desert masters.

Ngurra Kutju Ngurrara - Belonging to One Country, is the most ambitious show to date and has taken over 12 months to curate as we attempted to bring new styles, repeated dreamtime and more cultural understanding of the Luritja/Pintupi people of the Central and Western Deserts of Australia. It will showcase some of the most important recent works of some of Papunya's most established artists, a collection of older defining works by deceased or no-longer painting artists alongside canvases from some of the art centres newest and brightest talents.
Papunya a settlement located 240 northwest of Alice Springs, in Australia’s Northern Territory, is considered the birthplace of the contemporary aboriginal art movement. In 1971 school teacher Geoffrey Bardon encouraged some of the men to paint a blank school wall. The murals sparked off tremendous interest in the community and soon many men started painting, the rest as one says is history!

In 1972 the artists successfully established their own company, entirely owned and directed by traditional Aboriginal people and it currently has 49 shareholders and represents around 120 artists living in the communities of Kintore and Kiwirrkura, making it the most successful Aboriginal owned enterprise in the country, a testament to the commitment and drive of the artists and the management of the cooperative.

The Papunya Tula painting style derives directly from the artists' knowledge of traditional body and sand painting associated with ceremony. The initial designs were very simple and iconographic but they soon became more complex and today they are highly regarded, being the most collectable group of artists in contemporary Australian art.

In this exhibition works by ALL 4 of this year’s Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award finalists from Papunya Tula are on show: George TJUNGURRAYI, Yukultji NAPANGATI, Johnny TJUPURRULA YUNGUT & Nyilyari TJAPANGATI. Other heavy-weights will also be on show in this collection of over 40 works in what has become the ReDot Fine Art Gallery seminal annual show.

The exhibition opens on Thursday 21st October and runs till Saturday 4th December 2010 and it is a must see for anyone interested in following the “songlines” of one of the art movements most important centers.
The show will be opened by Mr. Paul Sweeney, Art Centre Manager for the Papunya Tula Artists, and will include the rare body of work by renowned artist Makinti NAPANAGKA, along with one or two other surprises!

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