When I saw the paintings from Papunya I was immediately aware of something being achieved that I’d been struggling to do for years. Here were paintings that looked abstract, came with stories, used symbols that you had to interpret, and were also landscapes with a strong feeling of the desert in them. I decided to adopt some of the aesthetics of these paintings – but not the designs because the designs were their language and copyright in their culture. I also felt I should try to use dots. I asked some of the senior men if that was okay, and they gave me permission. So I developed a style in my own work that referred a lot to Aboriginal art.

— Tim Johnson, 1991

Tim Johnson’s ‘molecular’ monochromes are inspired by Western Desert-style painting and Tibetan Buddhist cave murals (Johnson has been a practising Buddhist since 1987). From one cloth comprises a sea of white dots against an ochre-coloured background, which form a connective tissue between seated Buddhas, circular mandalas, Renaissance references, and sketches of people in his life.

In 1980, Johnson travelled to Alice Springs and Papunya to learn from the senior members of the Papunya Tula Artists Company, who invited him to collaborate on several paintings over the ensuing two decades. Johnson’s work continues to be debated; some view his engagement with Western Desert art as an act of appropriation, whereas others see it as an earnest cultural exchange.