5.7 Objects made for sale, souvenirs, models, and reproductions
Context of use:
Pintupi paintings were primarily done by men and most collected were made for sale. The designs represent stories in the dream world, the tjukurrpa, which is the place of ancestral beings but also a world that is believed to be true just as the non-dream world and is also the origin of people, the landscape, and elements of Pintupi culture such as rituals. For example, in a part of one story a hill is created by a man’s defecation. As things move from the tjukurrpa to the mullarpa (the non-dream world) they become visible, and such bark paintings make the invisible visible. The knowledge that has to be acquired to make and understand these paintings is highly valued and something that is usually only obtained by elderly men, but passed down to younger sons through initiation. Because of this, paintings are not individualist like Western art. In square or rectangular paintings, men usually paint their own territory in acrylic in how it would be depicted in tjukurrpa, and this is part of a ceremony, where the painter reveals their work. Circles usually represent landmarks, anything from hills to villages to water holes, and straight lines represent the travel paths usually taken to get from one place to another. Pintupi paints aren’t so much a map since they can’t be used to get from one place to another, nothing in the map is telling of how to travel. Geography as a whole isn’t seen in the same light as it is elsewhere, instead it is a guide to looking at the tjukurrpa but while being in the mullarpa. Acrylic paint with canvas board is more common than the bark that used to be used. Specimens specifically made for sale have none of the ritualistic significance that traditional paintings do. Everyone can read them and there are no taboos, as in tradition women and young children can’t read the paintings.
Department:
Oceania
Dimensions:
width 43.3 centimeters and length 57.2 centimeters
Comment:
cf. Myers, Fred R. "Truth, beauty, and Pintupi painting." Visual Anthropology 2, no. 2 (1989): 163-195.
Loans:
S1975-1976 #82: Merritt College (May 5, 1976–October 4, 1976)