MAKINTI NAPANANGKA

Painted at Kintore in November 2005
Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
Private collection

Yuwulyurru kapalilu palyara nintilpayi (Grandmothers teaching culture and ceremony), Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, 24 November 2006

The painting is in good and stable condition with no signs of restoration or repair with minor scuffs to the edges of the canvas.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Cf. For discussion of the artist and her painting see, Perkins, H., et. al., Tradition Today: Indigenous Art in the Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004, pp. 104-5

Hetti Perkins writes: "Most senior practitioners of Western Desert art led a traditional bush life in their desert homelands until their first contact with white Australians as young adults. Napanangka's life has followed the same course and, as with most Pintupi people, she has returned to live close to her country at Walungurru (Kintore), a small Aboriginal community established during the outstation movement, more than 500 kilometres west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs).

Napanangka is a familiar presence at the Papunya Tula arts centre in Walungurru, often the first to arrive with her pack of camp-dogs to begin a day of intense painting. Even when her eyesight faltered, Napanangka's enthusiasm for painting on canvas remained undiminished. When she recovered, her work showed renewed vigour, and was exhibited in the major retrospective Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, in 2000. Her work [owes] more to the gesture of hand-painting ochre onto the body for women's ceremonies, than to the meticulous application of dots that characterises men's ceremonial and contemporary art making. Napanangka's paintings often depict designs associated with the travels of the Kungka Kutjarra (Two Ancestral Women)" (ibid.)

This painting is sold with an accompanying Papunya Tula Artists certificate that reads: "This painting depicts designs associated with the site of Lupulgna, a rockhole situated south of the Kintore community. The Peewee (small bird) Dreaming is associated with this site, as well as the Kungka Kutjarra or Two Travelling Women Dreaming. During mythological times a group of ancestral women visited this site holding ceremonies associated with the area, before continuing their travels north to Kaakuratinja (Lake MacDonald) and later the Kintore area. The lines in the painting represent spun hair-string which is used in the making of nyimparra (hair-belts), which are worn by both men and women during ceremonies".