Lot 179: TIM LEURA TJAPALTJARRI , TEACHING LITTLE CHILDREN 1973

Bears Papunya Tula Artists label with artist's name, language group, title, date, and catalogue number TL735808 on the reverse Synthetic polymer paint on composition board

60.5 by 40.5 cm

Painted for Papunya Tula Artists in 1973

Cf. Children?s Story, 1972, in Bardon, G. and J. Bardon, Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2004, p.485, painting 467, illus

In 1972, Geoffrey Bardon had asked a number of artists including Tim Leura, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula (c.1932?2001), Kaapa Tjampitjinpa (1920?89) and others ?to paint children?s learning stories which could be shown to any group of young people? (Bardon and Bardon 2004, p.64). The artists made some adjustments to their imagery for the purpose: sacred or secret designs were omitted, ritual objects modified, and they used very little dotting, although in this painting Tim Leura has used the dotting effect as if to blur the design elements in the picture. The most frequently depicted figure in these paintings was the Teaching Man. The senior men or teachers appear as the U-shapes at the centre of this painting; beyond these are clusters of smaller U-shapes either side of a roundel, representing the children. The children are learning about the kinship structure and their position in it, and their social rights and responsibilities. The eight diagonals, indicating red sand, structure the composition of the work, possibly to intimate the eight kinship groups of traditional desert societies.


This painting is sold with accompanying explanatory documentation with an annotated diagram, that reads in part: 'From an early age children are taught about their relations and their responsibility to each category. This painting shows the old men teaching the children.'

The annotated diagram identifies the 'U' shapes above and below the central roundel as old men, the motifs to either side the central roundel as wind breaks and axes, the diagonal motifs extending from the corners as 'red sand', and the small roundels with small 'U' shapes on either side as children learning.