 Contemporary Indigenous art of the western desert began when Indigenous men at Papunya began painting in 1971 , assisted by teacher Geoffrey Bardon . Their work , which used acrylic paints to create designs representing body painting and ground sculptures , rapidly spread across Indigenous communities of central Australia , particularly following the commencement of a government @-@ sanctioned art program in central Australia in 1983 . By the 1980s and 1990s , such work was being exhibited internationally . The first artists , including all of the founders of the Papunya Tula artists ' company , had been men , and there was resistance amongst the Pintupi men of central Australia to women painting . However , there was also a desire amongst many of the women to participate , and in the 1990s large numbers of them began to create paintings . In the western desert communities such as Kintore , Yuendumu , Balgo , and on the outstations , people were beginning to create art works expressly for exhibition and sale . Art centres were important to this widespread creation of art works . 
