Ningura Napurrula (1938 – 2013) was born at Watulka, south of the modern Kiwirrkura community in Western Australia.
Napurrula was married to the late Yala Yala Tjungurrayi, a highly respected Pintupi Elder who held significant stories of his country and dreaming stories.Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi became one of the founders of Papunya Tula Artists in the early 1970s, and one of the exponents of the Tingari painting style that dominated Pintupi men’s painting until the early 1990s. From the 1980’s, Napurrula regularly assisted Tjungurrayi with his paintings, collaboration being common practice amongst many Indigenous artists. Napurrula helped to complete the backgrounds of his canvases with meticulous, precisely placed dots that characterised the Tingari style. In 1995, as part of the Kintore/Haasts Bluff women’s painting project, Napurrula started work independently to create her own pieces.
Napurrula’s work is characterised by rich linear designs and dense monochrome infilling built up through heavy layers of contrasting acrylic paint. Her depictions include the stories associated with important women’s rock hole sites of Wirrulnga and Palturunya, east of Kiwirrkurra and is informed by the seriousness of women’s business, echoed in the distinctive paintings of fellow Papunya Tula Artists, Makinti Napanangka and Inyuwa Nampitjinpa.
Napurrula’s work is held in all major collections nationally and was one of eight Indigenous Australian Artists chosen in 2006 to create major ceiling based work for the Musee Du Quai Branly in Paris.
NINGURA NAPURRULA
Ngaminya 2006
acrylilc on linen
89 x 122 cm
$5,750
[Private collection Sydney, signed verso, Aranda Art ASAANN2118, Certificate of Authenticity]
