Tommy Skeen's importance in Balgo art history belies the relatively small number of works in his catalogue. His paintings hum with complex imagery and narratives, but are always balanced by the bold spaces he carved out for story. In Yaparnungalangala his dots, looser than those of most men, seem to emanate from and vibrate against these ancestral actions. His stark iconography addresses matters of ceremonial knowledge and ritual practice with a confidence and unselfconsciousness rare in desert art. He knew what he could paint, and played at the boundaries of Balgo art in doing so.

As with Wimmitji and his wife Eubena, and many other Balgo couples, it is impossible to discuss the work of Tommy Skeen w...