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Between the Desert and the Moon: Central and Western Desert Artists

A multi-coloured dot painting with lots of little fine dots, on the left side is a white rectangle coming out of the side while on the left of the painting is a large blue circle that appears like a blurry eye.

Jeremy Sammy
Yinta and Warla, date unknown
Acrylic on linen
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Robert Michael Moon, 2013


Between the Desert and the Moon: Central and Western Desert Artists was a collection gifted to MAMA by Robert Michael Moon (Michael Moon). Moon has been an avid collector for over 50 years of two- and three-dimensional European and Aboriginal art.

During the 1970s – 1990s Moon collected work from the Western Desert, an area that borders the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

The collection encompassed art from the late twentieth to early twenty-first century, and showcased the diversity of the Western Desert region. These varied painting movements are now established as an integral part of the modern history of the Aboriginal peoples of the desert, and of Australian art history.

The works were drawn from a number of communities and include works by major artists such as the recently deceased Tiger Palpatja from the community of Amata in South Australia, Lucy Yukenberri from Balgo in Western Australia and Johnny Yungut Tjupurrurla from the Papunya Tula Artists cooperative in the Northern Territory.

Moon has donated works to national, state and regional collections. Through the Cultural Gift program, Moon donated 19 works to MAMA in 2013 and 16 works in 2015. This collection is now known as the Moon Gift.

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