Western Desert dot painting
Sacred Dreaming maps moved from sand to canvas in dots of acrylic paint
How to recognise it
- Fields of thousands of small dots
- Concentric circles for campsites and waterholes
- Meandering lines for ancestral tracks
- Bird's-eye view, like a map
- Ochre, white, red and black
Why it emerged
In 1971 teacher Geoffrey Bardon encouraged elders at Papunya to paint a school wall; they soon moved to boards and canvas. Acrylic let knowledge once kept in sand drawings and body paint be preserved and sold, giving communities an income.
Examples
Warlugulong1977 · Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Tim Leura TjapaltjarriA vast map of a fire Dreaming; in 2007 it became the most expensive Aboriginal paintingMan's Love Story1978 · Clifford Possum TjapaltjarriOne of the first desert paintings bought by a major gallery as contemporary artYuendumu Doorsc. 1983 · Warlpiri elders of YuendumuDreamings painted on 30 school doors to hand traditional knowledge to childrenEarth's Creation1994 · Emily Kame KngwarreyeFour panels of loose coloured dots pushing dot painting to the edge of abstraction
Yuendumu Doorsc. 1983 · Warlpiri elders of YuendumuDreamings painted on 30 school doors to hand traditional knowledge to childrenEarth's Creation1994 · Emily Kame KngwarreyeFour panels of loose coloured dots pushing dot painting to the edge of abstractionMeanwhile elsewhere
- Modern architecture (International Style) Whole world
- Socialist realism Eastern Europe & Russia
- Postmodernism Whole world