Contemporary Indigenous art of the western desert began in 1971 when Indigenous men at Papunya created murals and canvases using western art materials , 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 after the introduction of a government @-@ sanctioned art program in central Australia in 1983 . By the 1980s and ' 90s , such work was being exhibited internationally . The first artists , including all of the founders of the Papunya Tula artists ' company , were men , and there was resistance among the Pintupi men of central Australia to women also painting . However , many of the women wished to participate , and in the 1990s many of them began to paint . In the western desert communities such as Utopia , Kintore , Yuendumu , Balgo , and on the outstations , people were beginning to create art works expressly for exhibition and sale .