Artist: Ningura Napurrula

Size: 1520mm x 1520mm

Medium: Acrylic on Linen

Area: Kintore

Language: Pintupi

Born in 1938, Ningura Napurrula is from Kintore and is currently painting in the "Womens' Group" from Papunya/Kintore. Ningura Napurrula was one of the wives of Yala Yala Gibbs, a Pintupi elder (now deceased) and one of the group of legendary painters who founded the desert painting movement at Papunya in 1971. During the early years of the painting movement (70's and early 80's) , painting in a fine art context was an almost exclusively male prerogative. Women began painting in the 1980's throughout the desert but many Pintupi women did not begin painting in earnest until the mid 90's. The Women of Kintore, Kiwirrkurra, and Haast's Bluff have since received considerable recognition for their fresh painting styles. A common technique involves the use of a dark ground overlaid by a field of thick confectionate white dots in which the design or "kuruwarri" emerges from the ground as if it were etched into the field dots, while the reverse is actually the case, the dots create the design in relief in the negative space of the ground. Ningura's paintings often depict designs associated with Women's ceremonies at the rockhole and soakage water source of Ngaminya which is just to the southwest of the contemporary community of Kiwirrkura. Collections include the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Exhibitions include Papunya Tula Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne in 2005, Peintres Pintupi, Galerie DAD, Mantes-la-Jolie, France in 2004, Australian Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Prague, Czech Republic and Masterpieces from the Western Desert, Gavin Gallery, London, UK in 2003; the 2001 Telstra Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of NSW in 2000.