‘A whitewashing of minds’: the mania and myth of Geoffrey Bardon and the painting men of Papunya

Bardon has largely remained in popular consciousness as the synonymous hero and martyr of the art movement’s origin story. But a new biography is unravelling the myth, and the madness, behind the taleLike many foundation stories, the white Australian narrative about the birth of the globally celebrated Western Desert Aboriginal “dot painting” movement is steeped in myth.For decades it has…