Six Paintings from Papunya

Abstract

The legacy of the Papunya painters of the 1970s, each of them senior men, has since been revitalized by their wives, sisters, and daughters—and by their sons, grandsons, and nephews. Art has been a crucial platform for Indigenous Australians to make their creative and cultural concerns legible to non-Indigenous peoples. Fred Myers and Terry Smith have long demonstrated their capacity to work with Indigenous artists and to translate their art for others. They assiduously follow Indigenous protocols relating to revelation and concealment. The six paintings under discussion actively communicate new and ancient knowledge to them and, through them, to the reader. Disciplinary divisions between anthropology and art history are overcome. A critical vocabulary best suited to apprehend these works is in the process of being shaped.