It has been widely written how the Papunya movement, or dot painting style, started at the Papunya Aboriginal Community, about 240 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs in 1971 when a young school teacher Geoff Bardon encouraged senior elders to paint their traditional designs on to the local school building wall. This mural was the start of the contemporary art movement that still today sees many aboriginal communities around Australia engaged in art creation.
This selection of works from the Arthur Papadimitriou Collection presents works from the three important phases of the contemporary art movement; Hermannsburg watercolours, early board and post Geoff Bardon period. What makes this collection unique to others is the fact that Mr. Papadimitriou – himself a teacher, started collecting aboriginal art after having worked and lived with artists in the aboriginal communities in the 1990s.
His generosity through donations and gifts to various museums and galleries ultimately led to an award being bestowed on him by the French Government- Ordre des Arts et des Lettres|Chevalier De Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, with his donation of a Turkey Tolson Spear Sharpening painting to The Musee du Quai Branly
