Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu: Contemporary Aboriginal Painting from the Australian Desert

Organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia in partnership with Papunya Tula Artists

Fifty years ago, a painting movement emerged at Papunya in Aus­tralia’s Central Desert. It arose with such force and convic­tion that one could be forgiven for thinking it had existed forever, as though etched from the earth by the slow pas­sage of time. In fact, formed in the aftermath of colonization, the enduring art movement is as much a product of recent his­torical circumstances as the ancient traditions on which it draws. 

Now widely recognized in global contemporary art, painting at Papunya began in 1971 when a small group of Aboriginal men in the community started to represent once-secret ancestral designs of ceremony and ritual, using acrylic paint on scraps of cardboard, linoleum, and Masonite. Their seemingly abstract paintings revealed living ancestral connections known as Tjukurrpa (Dreaming), which fueled powerful artistic experiments with color, line, and space. The following year, in an act of unprecedented corporate sovereignty, the artists formed Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd., the first Aboriginal-owned arts enterprise in Australia. The company’s economic success has allowed generations of men and women artists to stay on their ancestral lands, and continues to provide vital opportunities for local community development. 

Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu celebrates fifty years of Papunya Tula Artists. It features nearly 120 paintings, including some of the most iconic works of Indigenous Australian art. Rather than being arranged chronologically, the paintings are displayed according to Indigenous principles of genealogy, place, and ancestral travels. In doing so, the show reveals the deep, ongoing relationship between Aboriginal artists, the places they paint, and Tjukurrpa, which exists in a constant state of past and present together—or, in Pintupi, irriṯitja kuwarri tjungu.

The exhibition also recognizes the long association between Papunya Tula Artists and New York University forged by Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Fred Myers. Since 1973 Myers has served as one of the movement’s most prominent international advocates. His continued involvement with the community brought the exhibition Icons of the Desert to the Grey Art Museum in 2009. While that exhibition showcased early works from Papunya, Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu honors and extends the legacy of the company’s founding artists. 

Tour

The exhibition is on view at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art from July 18 through December 6, 2025. After its presentation at the Grey, it will open at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma on September 26, 2026, and close in April 2027.