It was with great pleasure that I heard from a dear friend of my late uncle, Andrew Crocker, last night. Despite having been 20+ years since his untimely death at the hands, ironically, of those struggling for independence in Namibia, there are many who have not forgotten him.
The encounter reminded me that there is a book being published this fall Once Upon a Time in Papunya on the topic of the early Papunya Tula boards, of which of course my uncle was a part, and which covers his involvement in some of the trials and tribulations of those times.
To quote from the University of New South Wales Press website:
Astronomical auction prices in the late 1990s first drew many people’s attention to the phenomenon of the early Papunya boards, the thousand small painted panels created at the remote Northern Territory Aboriginal settlement of Papunya in 1971-72. Western Desert art expert Vivien Johnson looks at the controversies that surrounded the paintings at the time of their creation – and what they mean now to the artists’ descendants; the role of teacher Geoffrey Bardon; the depiction of sacred imagery, and the distant worlds of art auctions and international exhibitions. A gripping narrative work, this book is an important intervention in Australian art history.
I am really looking forward getting my copy of the book and finding out more about a slice of art history that not only affects our family, but also covers much broader social and political issues impacting the broader Australian Aboriginal artistic community back in the day.
For those interested, you can pre-order the book, coming this autumn on the UNSW Press website Once Upon a Time in Papunya as well as find a couple of republished obits and short bio about my late uncle. If your interested in Aboriginal Art you might want to check out the beautiful examples on the Rebecca Hossack Gallery website.
Web-head & art collector, living in East London and huffing on the fumes of the planet since '78. Here are my thoughts.
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