May – Oct (Dry Season)
Monday – Friday: 9.30am – 4:30pm
Saturday: 9.30am – 2:30pm
Sunday: 10am – 2:30pm
Nov – April (Wet Season)
Monday – Friday: 9.30am – 4.00pm
Saturday: 10.00am – 2:00pm
Sunday: Closed
Born: c1925
Died: 18-5-2016
Region: Tanami Desert
Community: Lajamanu
Language: Warlpiri
Social Affiliation: Napangardi subsection
Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas.
Subjects: Ngarlyipi (Snake Vine), Karnta(Woman), Mina Mina, Kanakurlangu. Australian National University Crossing Cultures: Art from the Boxer Collection. ANU, Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra 2000 Morphy, H. Aboriginal Art, Phaidon Press Limited, London,1998. Morphy, H. and Boles, M.S. (eds.) Art from the land University of Virginia Press, Virginia, U.S.A., 1999. Ryan, Judith (editor), Colour Power – Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2004 (C). Birnberg & Kreczmanski, Aboriginal Artists dictionary of biographies, JB Publishing, (C) � Discovery Media, Documentation Pty Ltd, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Notes: Judy Watson was born in c1925 at Yarungkanji, Mt. Doreen Station, at the time when many Warlpiri and other Central and Western Desert Peoples were living a traditional nomadic life. With her family Judy made many trips on foot back to and lived for long periods at Mina Mina and Yingipurlangu, her ancestral country on the border of the Tanami and Gibson Deserts. These places are rich in bush tucker such as wanakiji, bush plums, yakajirri, bush tomatoes, and wardapi, sand goanna. Judy still frequently goes hunting in the country west of Yuendumu, near her homelands. Judy was taught painting by her elder sister, Maggie Napangardi Watson. She painted alongside her at Warlukurlangu artists for a number of years, developing her own unique style. Though a very tiny woman Judy has had ten children, two of whom she has outlived. She is a woman of incredible energy, this is transmitted to her work through her dynamic use of colour, and energetic “dragged dotting” style, she has developed a popular and distinctive style of contrasting lines of colour with richly textured surfaces. She is at the forefront of a move towards more abstract rendering of Jukurrpa by Warlpiri arists, however her work retains strong kurruwarri, the details which tell of the sacredness of place and song in her culture. Judy’s Jukurrpa are Ngarlyipi (Snake Vine), Karnta (Woman), Mina Mina, and Kanakurlangu.
Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery is a founding member of the Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association, which was established to promote the ethical trade of indigenous art.
May – Oct (Dry Season)
Monday – Friday: 9.30am – 4:30pm
Saturday: 9.30am – 2:30pm
Sunday: 10am – 2:30pm
Nov – April (Wet Season)
Monday – Friday: 9.30am – 4.00pm
Saturday: 10.00am – 2:00pm
Sunday: Closed