Makinti Napanangka / Kungka Kutjarra (19546)

c.1930 – 2011

Makinti Napanangka was widely acclaimed as one of the most important of the Western Desert artists. Her language group was Pintupi and she was born in c. 1930 in the area of Lake MacDonald. Prior to the establishment of the Papunya Community, Makinti and her extended family walked to Haasts Bluff. Makinti passed away peacefully in Alice Springs in January 2011.

She began painting in the mid–1990’s and her distinctive style and composition, combined with delicate colouring, brought her immediate success. She never changed her basic content; that of the travels across country, women’s ceremonies and the dress associated with her culture.

Utopia Art’s Director, Chris Hodges, has been quoted as saying that Makinti Napanangka was the central desert’s “best painter since Emily Kngwarreye”. Hodges believes the artist had no living match in her painterly freedom, and her wonderful blend of naïve and sophisticated elements.

Makinti was selected for inclusion in the retrospective exhibition “Papunya Tula – Genesis and Genius”, at Sydney Art Gallery of New South Wales 2000 and was a finalist in the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award 2003 at the National Gallery of Victoria. In the March 2003 issue of the Australian Art Collector magazine she was named as one of the 50 most collectable artists in Australia.

In 2008 Makinti was named the winner of Australia’s richest Indigenous art prize, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Her work is represented in major collections world-wide.

Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions

1995
• Minyma Tjukurrpa, Kintore/Haasts Bluff Canvas Project, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide

1996
• Papunya Tula Women: Utopia Art, Sydney, NSW
• Museums & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin, N.T.
• Womens’ Show, Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, Alice Springs, N.T.

1997
• Museums & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory
• The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, N.T.
• Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC

1998
• Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
• Nineteen Ninety Eight, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW
• 15th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award 1998, Museums & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin, N.T
• Gold Coast Art Gallery, Surfers Paradise, QLD
• Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, N.T.

1999
• Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
• Moet & Chandon Touring Exhibition, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne. VIC

2000
• ‘Papunya Tula: Genesis & Genius’, Sydney’s Art Gallery of NSW
• Makinti Napanangka: New Vision, Utopia Art, Sydney, NSW
• Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne, VIC
• Papunya Tula Artists NOW, Utopia Art Sydney
• Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Framed Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory
• Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
• Pintupi Women, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, NT.
• Melbourne ArtFair

2001
• Makinti Napanangka: New Paintings, Utopia Art, Sydney, NSW
• Scott Livesey, Art Dealer, Melbourne Victoria
• Dreamscapes-Contemporary Desert Art, Mostings Hus, Frederiksberg, Denmark
• Papunya Tula 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, ACT
• Pintupi Exhibition, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, NT
• 19th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, NT
• Kintore and Krwirrkura, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• Dreamtime-Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Essi Collection,Vienna, Austria
• Dreamtime: The Dark and The Light, Kunst der Gegenwart, Sammlung Essl, Vienna
• Desert Flowering: Aborignal Art from Private Collections, Manawatu Gallery, New Zealand
• Palm Beach Art Fair, Palm Beach, Florida, USA
• Art of the Pintupi, Tony Bond Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA

2002
• Makinti Napanangka: Recent Paintings, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
• Recent Paintings by the Women Artists of Kintor and Kiwirrkura, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
• Sprint Exhibition 2002, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne, VIC
• 19th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
• Next Generation – Aboriginal Art 2002, Art House Gallery, Sydney
• Paintings from Our Country, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA

2003
• Emerge, Museum and Art Gallery of the NT
• 20th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

2004
• Papunya Tula Artists 2004, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
• Colour Power – Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC
• Mythology and Reality – Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, VIC

2005
• Papunya Tula Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC

Awards
• Finalist, 2003 Clemenger Art Awards, National Gallery of Victoria

Selected Collections
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
• Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
• Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
• Macquarie Bank Collection, Sydney

This work incorporates designs associated with the travels of the Kungka Kutjarra (two women), Ancestor figures whose travels cover great distances from Pitjantjajara country, then north east through to and beyond Haasts Bluff and Papunya. The wandering lines that feature in the painting depict the swirling hair string belts and skirts worn by the women during the ceremonies that were performed as they travelled over the vast land. Hair string belts are often used symbolically to represent the act of women dancing. The belts, worn above the hips have dangling strings often with feathers attached which swing about as the women dance, highlighting their attractiveness.