Straightening of the Spears Tingarri

Turkey Tolson Tjupurula Original

Straightening of the Spears Tingarri - Acrylic on Canvas (1993)

Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Australian Indigenous artist (c. 1938–2001), emerged from Papunya’s original Desert Painting movement, eventually serving as the longest standing chairperson of Papunya Tula Artists. His work, deeply rooted in Pintupi culture, spans a transformative career that moved from traditional iconography to a pioneering minimalist abstraction.

In his 1990s series Straightening the Spears at Ilyingaungau (1990–99, acrylic on canvas), Tolson transforms ancestral ritual the spears prepared by fire, into rhythmic horizontal bands of dots. These shimmering lines both depict ceremonial memory and evoke the intense heat and vastness of the desert landscape, blending story and abstraction in a lyrical visual vocabulary.

Through his mature abstraction, Tolson’s work unsettles traditional expectations of Papunya painting by distilling narrative into minimalist form. His fearless use of negative space, tonal nuance, and pattern made him a groundbreaking artist whose influence reverberates through the Western Desert style and into contemporary Australian art collections internationally, including the Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, and National Gallery of Australia.

Authenticated and Valued at

$8,000