The austerity of Turkey Tolson’s iconic paintings of Tingarri men straightening their spears brought a new era of minimalist abstraction in Western Desert painting. As Papunya artists were increasingly embraced by the global contemporary art world, many artists moved further into abstraction, obscuring ceremonial elements and creating visually dazzling works that appealed to the tastes of collectors and curators of contemporary art. The straight lines refer to spears ancestral men made for an epic battle. They are still made today, a process requiring the utmost skill and patience. The ten-foot-long wooden spears are warmed over coals section by section, while counter pressure is applied to prevent curving.

Yes, people are changing but they’re working from the early days. The stories are still the same.