Uta Uta Tjangala made a powerful impression on everybody he met. Geoff Bardon describes 'Uta Uta as a warrior and charismatic, an exciting man handling spears and 'woomera' for my camera, demonstrating in private his prowess with traditional artefacts.' (1) Uta Uta was also adept with ceremonial protocol and performance. He was the first of the western Pintupi to take up the brush, and he painted with undiminished passion until his death in 1990. (2)

Uta Uta also made an indelible impression on the anthropologist Fred Myers, who explains that as the Painting movement emerged in the early 1970s, 'Shorty Lungkata [an equally magnetic Pintupi man] and Uta Uta were elders at the height of their influen...