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: 1938
Died: 2013
Region: Western Desert
Community: Kintore
Outstation: Lake McKay
Language: Pintupi
Local group: Pintupi
Subjects and Themes: Travels of her female ancestors, the sites they passed and the bush tucker they collected Born around 1938 at Watulka, south of the modern Kiwirrkura community, Ningura Napurrula was married to the late Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi with whom she moved to Papunya in the early days of the settlement. In 1996 she was part of a group of elderly women from Kintore and Kiwirrkura who began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in their own right.
Characteristic of Ningara’s work is a strong dynamism and rich linear design-compositions created with heavy layers of acrylic paint.
She participated in an initial Papunya Tula Artists exhibition in 1996 and featured in several group shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin in 1999. She had her first solo exhibition with William Mora Aboriginal Art in 2000, and participated in the impressive Kintore Women’s Painting for the Papunya Tula retrospective at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Native titles honoured half a world away
Native titles honoured half a world away
National pride .. Ningura Napurrula is among eight Aboriginal artists whose work has been selected for an exhibition at the new Musee du Quai Branly, in Paris. Photo: Bob Pearce The Sydney Morning Herald May 31, 2006 By Sunanda Creagh
CLAD in red shoes, pink socks and a beanie, the Pintupi artist Ningura Napurrula is pleased and proud. The 68-year-old is among eight artists whose work has been selected for the new Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, making her a standard bearer for Aboriginal art in Europe. The Australian Indigenous Art Commission, to be opened at the museum on June 20, will showcase work by leading Aboriginal artists including Napurrula, Lena Nyadbi, Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford, Judy Watson, Gulumbu Yunupingu, John Mawurndjul, Tommy Watson and the late Michael Riley.
More than 2500 square metres of work will adorn ceilings and walls over four levels in one of the museum’s buildings, making it the largest ever commission of indigenous Australian artwork. Napurrula’s work, Untitled (Wirrulnga), tells the story of travelling women who stop at special sites to give birth, but she has no travel plans herself. “I don’t want to go to the opening in Paris because it’s too far and I’ve got grandchildren to look after,” she said through an interpreter at yesterday’s preview of the project.
The Arnhem Land artist Gulumbu Yunupingu had no such inhibitions, saying she wanted to go to Paris to “make friends and look around”. “I am happy to give my paintings to France,” she said. “I represent Australia. Here we are; we come together. I am part of you and you are part of me and we need each other because we are Australian.” The works were selected by the Aboriginal art curator of the National Gallery of Australia, Brenda L. Croft, and the Aboriginal art curator of the Art Gallery of NSW, Hetti Perkins, both of Aboriginal descent.
The women welcomed the chance to show Aboriginal art to the world, but condemned the conditions indigenous people endure at home. “We have been abandoned by the present government,” Perkins said, pointing to Australia’s Aboriginal health and poverty crisis. Croft said Aboriginal people “don’t have a voice except through art and culture” and criticised the Government for abandoning plans for a resale royalty scheme, by which artists could collect royalties when their work is resold at auction. “They should have brought it in.” The eight artists would not benefit from the increase in value of their work on the secondary market, she said.
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