TJUNGUṈUTJA

The award-winning exhibition, Tjunguṉutja: from having come together, is touring to Central Australia and will be on display at the Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, from 16 March – 2 June 2019. Following on from its inaugural presentation in June 2017 at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), this popular exhibition presents the most significant collection of early Papunya paintings documenting the rise of Western Desert art.

​Tjunguṉutja showcases over 80 early Papunya paintings from MAGNT’s collection. The exhibition includes three new acquisitions, unpublished photographs and historical ephemera, telling hitherto untold stories by members of the Western Desert Aboriginal community with personal accounts of the Papunya art movement and its origins.

​Tjunguṉutja provides a unique insight into the artistic development of the progenitors of the Papunya Art Movement. The exhibition’s curatorial team included one of the founding artists of the Western Desert Art Movement, and one of the major contributing artists to this exhibition, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, alongside world-renowned artist Michael Nelson Jagamarra AM, Bobby West Tjupurrula, Joseph Jurrah Tjapaltjarri, Kumanytjayi Anderson and Luke Scholes, Curator of Aboriginal Art at MAGNT.

​The opportunity to tour Tjunguṉutja: from having come together to Alice Springs was made possible thanks to funding from the Northern Territory Government.

Photography: Merinda Campbell