Elizabeth Marks Nakamarra

Painted for Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, in 2003 (catalogue number EM0308026)

Palya Art, Northern Territory, consigned by the above on October 16, 2004

Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above on November 13, 2006

Thence by descent to the present owner

Elizabeth Marks Nakamarra was born a mere eleven years before the acrylic painting movement began in the settlement of Papunya where she was raised by Turkey Tolsen Tjupurrula (see Lot 28) and his family. Tolson was a major figure in the project who was to inspire Nakamarra as an artist in later years. At school, she remembered the art classes taken by Geoffrey Bardon who was a catalyst in the establishment of the Papunya Tula Artists cooperative in 1971-1972.¹

In time Nakamarra was to marry another luminary of the Papunya movement, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri (see Lots 22, 38-40). It was by observing Namarari that she learnt the art of painting, although she did not take it up in earnest until after his passing in 1998.  Nakamarra recalled Namarari's exhortation to her saying ‘“Sometime when I’m sick, you should learn how to do canvas, when I’m gone you can look after kids, when you’re doing canvas.” Yeah, that time I thought, "oh that tjilpi [old man] told me to start work’. Then I start to work here [Kintore], little bit, little bit, little bit then keep going..."’.²

Painted only five years after she took up the brush, Untitled, 2003, clearly shows the influence of Nakamarra’s two mentors in her ability to create a field of optical sensation. However, the hieroglyphical forms punctuating the picture plane confirm she had found her own, individual voice.

¹ Johnson, V., Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists, IAD Press, Alice Springs, 2008, p. 276.

² O’Halloran, Alec B., Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri: The master from Marnpi, LifeDesign Australia, Sydney, 2018, p. 151