Makinti Napanangka

Makinti Napanangka
Born circa 1930 (1930) (per most searches; other sources indicate 1922 or 1932)
East Gibson Desert, Western Australia, Australia
Died 9 January 2011 (aged 80–81)
Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Nationality Australian
Known for Painting
Notable work Untitled (Lupul rockhole)
Awards 2008 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award

Makinti Napanangka (c. 1930 – 9 January 2011) was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She was referred to posthumously as Kumentje.[1] The term Kumentje was used instead of her personal name as it is customary among many indigenous communities not to refer to the deceased by their original given name for some time after their death.[2] She lived in the communities of Haasts Bluff, Papunya, and later at Kintore, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north-east of the Lake MacDonald region where she was born, on the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Makinti Napanangka began painting Contemporary Indigenous Australian art at Kintore in the mid-1990s, encouraged by a community art project. Interest in her work developed quickly, and she is now represented in most significant Australian public art galleries, including the National Gallery of Australia. A finalist in the 2003 Clemenger Contemporary Art Award, Makinti won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2008. Her work was shown in the major indigenous art exhibition Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Working in synthetic polymer on linen or canvas, Makinti's paintings primarily take as their subjects a rockhole site, Lupul, and an indigenous story (or "dreaming") about two sisters, known as Kungka Kutjarra. She was a member of the Papunya Tula Artists Cooperative, but her work has been described as more spontaneous than that of her fellow Papunya Tula artists.

Personal life

Daytime landscape photo, showing a range of hills with the nearest rising to a rocky red peak, below a blue sky with a few white strings of cloud, and above the tops of eucalyptus trees.
Haasts Bluff, where Makinti lived in the 1940s and 1950s.

Makinti Napanangka's year of birth is uncertain, but several sources[3][4][5] indicate she was born around 1930, although other sources indicate she may have been born as early as 1922 or as late as 1932 [notes 1] at a location described by some sources as Lupul rockhole[8][10][13] but by one major reference work as Mangarri.[7] All sources agree that she comes from the area of Karrkurritinytja[notes 2] or Lake MacDonald,[15] which straddles the border between Western Australia and the Northern Territory, 50 kilometres (31 mi) south-west of Kintore, and about 500 kilometres (310 mi) west of Alice Springs.

Makinti was a member of the Pintupi group of indigenous people,[16] who are associated with the communities of Papunya, Kintore, and Kiwirrkura. "Napanangka" is a skin name, one of eight used to denote the subgroups in the Pintupi kinship system, not a surname in the sense used by Europeans.[17] Thus her personal name was "Makinti". The uncertainty around Makinti's date and place of birth arises from the fact that Indigenous Australians often estimate dates of birth by comparison with other events, especially for people born before contact with European Australians. They may also cite the place of birth as being where the mother first felt the foetus move, rather than where the birth took place.[18]

Makinti's first contact with white people was seeing them riding camels, when she was living at Lupul.[13] She was one of a large group of people who walked into Haasts Bluff in the early 1940s, together with her husband Nyukuti Tjupurrula[8] (brother of artist Nosepeg Tjupurrula),[9] and their son Ginger Tjakamarra, born around 1940.[7] At Haasts Bluff they had a second child, Narrabri Narrapayi, in 1949.[7] The population moved to Papunya in the late 1950s, where Makinti had another child, Jacqueline Daaru, in 1958. She had a daughter, Winnie Bernadette, in 1961 in Alice Springs.[7] The family moved to Kintore when it was established in the early 1980s, and by 1996 Kumentje was painting there for the Papunya Tula Artists Cooperative.[15] Her children Ginger, Narrabri, and Jacqueline also became artists, all of them painting for Papunya Tula Artists.[7]

Physically tiny yet robust and strong,[13][19] Kumentje was described as "a charmer and an irascible character", with an infectious smile.[13] She died in Alice Springs in January 2011.

Artistic career

Artists of the Papunya Tula movement were painting at Haasts Bluff in the late 1970s, but the deaths of some of the main painters in the early 1980s led to a period of decline.[20] In 1992, the Ikuntji Women's Centre was opened at Haasts Bluff and a new painting movement quickly developed, supported by founding art coordinator Marina Strocchi,[21] who assisted in artists' development at both Haasts Bluff and Kintore.[6][10] It was through this initiative that Kumentje began painting in 1994 for the Minyma Tjukurrpa (Kintore/Haasts Bluff Project)[22] and by 1997 her work was being acquired by major collecting institutions.[23] She was one of the "Kintore ladies"[7] who joined earlier generations of the famous Papunya Tula artists,[24] and was referred to as "number one" by her fellow artists, of whom she was considered a leader.[13] She painted with the Papunya Tula Artists Cooperative, in which she was a shareholder, from 1996.[15][25]

an acrylic painting on linen, of lines and circles painted in oranges, yellows and whites, and some blue.
Rocks at Lupulnga (2000), painting by Makinti Napanangka
Image: the artist, Papunya Tula Artists Ltd, Utopia Art Sydney and Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd

The only break in her career was in 1999, when she underwent a cataract operation,[7][notes 3] an event that journalist Nicolas Rothwell suggested was associated with a distinct shift in her work, including the increasing use of thick lines.[19] Johnson said the operation resulted in "a collection of light-flooded canvases";[7] Art Gallery of New South Wales curator Hetti Perkins said that, after her recovery, "her work showed renewed vigour".[26]

Makinti's works were selected to hang in five consecutive National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) exhibitions, beginning in 1997.[10][15] In 2000, she held her first solo exhibition, and was one of the artists whose works were included in the major exhibition Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[7] The following year, she was a finalist at the NATSIAA.[15] 2003 saw her named by Australian Art Collector magazine as one of the country's 50 most collectible artists,[27] an assessment repeated by that magazine in 2004,[28] 2005,[29] and 2006.[30] Also in 2003, she was among the finalists for the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award.[31] By 2006, her works were commanding "the upper end of the price spectrum", though the resale values of those of her works not sold through Papunya Tula artists were considered precarious, owing to such works being of variable quality.[13]

In August 2008, Makinti won the $40,000 NATSIAA,[32] but her age and circumstances prevented her from accepting it in person.[25] In October 2008, she was one of several prominent artists whose works featured in a charity auction securing funds for the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin. Her painting sold for A$18,500, a significant contribution to the quarter of a million dollars raised.[33] In 2009, she was again a finalist in the NATSIAA, with an untitled painting[34] and was also a finalist in the Togart Contemporary Art Award the same year.[35] In 2011 she was a finalist in the 36th Alice Art Prize and in 2011 she was posthumously awarded the Member of the Order of Australia, for "service to the arts as a contemporary Indigenous artist, to women painters of the Western Desert Art movement, and to the community of the Northern Territory".[36]

Most of Australia's public collections hold one or more works by Makinti, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. She participated in some major group exhibitions, such as Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Colour Power at the National Gallery of Victoria, as well as having had a small number of solo exhibitions at private galleries, including the gallery of influential art dealer Gabrielle Pizzi.[10][37] The National Portrait Gallery in Canberra has in its collection a photographic portrait of Kumentje, by Malaysian-born Australian artist Hari Ho.[38] Her work was selected for inclusion in the 2012 Sydney Biennale.[39]

Style of painting

Makinti's works, including her Clemenger Award and NATSIAA paintings, are created with synthetic polymer on linen or canvas.[9][31][40]

Many paintings by artists of the Western Desert relate to water, while the story (or "dreaming") most frequently portrayed by Western Desert women is Kungka Kutjarra, or Two Women, concerning the travel of two sisters.[10][41] Makinti's works reflect those themes, and are particularly associated with a rockhole site, Lupul,[31][42][notes 4] and with Kungka Kutjarra. Her untitled painting in the Genesis and Genius exhibition was based on Kungka Kutjarra,[9] while the painting that won the 2008 Telstra award related to Lupul. The iconography of her paintings includes the use of lines representing paths and ceremonial hair-string skirts, and circles representing water-holes.[10]

According to Art Gallery of New South Wales indigenous art curator and NATSIAA judge Hetti Perkins, Makinti and her work are "very dynamic and charismatic".[32] Although a member of the Papunya Tula Artists, Makinti's work has been described as taking "a more spontaneous approach in illustrating the traditional iconography than that done by previous artists painting at Papunya".[15] Her style evolved over time,[19] beginning with gestural brush strokes in ordered compositions, and developing into more closely interwoven representations of the hair-string skirts and designs reflecting those used in body painting.[43] Throughout this evolution, her colour palette has consistently included a subtle range of yellows and pinks, through to oranges and whites.[10][19][44]

Judith Ryan, senior curator at the National Gallery of Victoria, described Makinti's entry in the 2003 Clemenger Contemporary Art Award as:

concerned with touching and sensing with fingers, rather than purely visual. The repetition of colour chords and textured striations, which closely echo each other, has a rhapsodic effect akin to many bodies in dance and reveals the inner or spiritual power, the essence, of Makinti Napanangka's country and cultural identity. The energetic lines invoke body paint for women’s business, and more particularly represent spun hair-string, which is used to make belts worn by women during ceremonies associated with the rockhole site of Lupulnga, a Peewee Dreaming place.[45]

Reviewing the same exhibition, Robert Nelson described Makinti's work as "sensual and chromatically effusive painting".[46] The work of the "Kintore ladies" has created "some of the most richly textured surfaces in the history of the (Papunya Tula) company";[7] Makinti's painting for Genesis and Genius was hailed as "a painterly celebration of colour and form".[9]

Major collections

Solo exhibitions and awards

Notes

  1. ↑ Sources give a number of possible years of birth. Japingka Gallery's biography says "around 1932";[6] Johnson's major survey of Papunya Tula artists says c. 1922;[7] others suggest around 1930.[8][9][10][11][12]
  2. ↑ There is a wide range of spellings of the indigenous name given to the Lake MacDonald area, including Karrukurutjuntja[14] and Kaakuratintja.[13]
  3. ↑ While the Japingka gallery places the operation in 1998,[6] Johnson had met with the artist in 1999, describing her as "almost blind with cataracts".
  4. ↑ The site is sometimes referred to as Lupulnga, which in Pintupi is the absolutive case of Lupul.

References

  1. ↑ Ashleigh Wilson (2011-01-13). "Aboriginal desert art loses unique vision". The Australian. Archived from the original on 2012-10-11. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
  2. ↑ Dussart, Francoise-F. (1988). "Notes on Warlpiri women's personal names" (PDF). Journal de la Société des Océanistes. 86: 53. doi:10.3406/jso.1988.2842. Archived from the original on 27 August 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  3. ↑ "Makinti Napanangka – Painter – Valuation, prices and statistics". Arcadja.com. Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
  4. ↑ "Past Auction Results for Makinti Napanangka Art – Makinti Napanangka on artnet". Artnet.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
  5. ↑ "Makinti Napanangka". Red Desert Gallery. 2008-10-26. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
  6. 1 2 3 "Makinti Napanangka". Japingka Gallery. 2006. Archived from the original on 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Johnson, Vivien (2008). Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists. Alice Springs, NT: IAD Press. pp. 316–318. ISBN 978-1-86465-090-7.
  8. 1 2 3 "Tradition and transformation: Indigenous art in the NGV collection: Makinti Napanangka". National Gallery of Victoria. Archived from the original on 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Perkins, Hetti; Hannah Fink (2000). Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales in association with Papunya Tula artists. pp. 184, 295. ISBN 0-7347-6306-9.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 McCulloch, Alan; Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch Childs (2006). The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. Fitzroy, Victoria: Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press. p. 117. ISBN 0-522-85317-X.
  11. 1 2 "Makinti Napanangka". AGNSW collection record. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 "Makinti Napanangka – Pintupi Artist". Aboriginal Art Online. Archived from the original on 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Isaacs, Jennifer (2006). "Makinti Napanangka: under the desert sky". Australian Art Collector. 37: 116–123.
  14. 1 2 Strocchi, Marina (1999). Ikuntji tjuta: touring. Campbelltown, NSW: Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery. p. 26.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Birnberg, Margo; Janusz Kreczmanski (2004). Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region. Marleston, South Australia: J.B. Publishing. p. 231. ISBN 1-876622-47-4.
  16. 1 2 "NGV collection: Makinti Napanangka". National Gallery of Victoria. Archived from the original on 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2010-07-05.
  17. ↑ "Kinship and skin names". People and culture. Central Land Council. Archived from the original on 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
  18. ↑ Birnberg, Margo; Janusz Kreczmanski (2004). Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region. Marleston, South Australia: J.B. Publishing. pp. 10–12. ISBN 1-876622-47-4.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Rothwell, Nicolas (2007-12-27). "Forging a language of emotion". The Australian.
  20. ↑ Johnson, Vivien (2000). "Desert art". In Kleinert, Sylvia and Margot Neale. The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 219. ISBN 0-19-550649-9.
  21. ↑ McCulloch, Susan (1999). Contemporary Aboriginal Art: A guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. pp. 103–105. ISBN 1-86448-631-7.
  22. ↑ National Gallery of Victoria, artist biography http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/ngvschools/TraditionAndTransformation/artists/Makinti-Napanangka/. Retrieved 29 January 2014
  23. ↑ "Makinti Napanangka, Snake Dreaming, 1996". National Gallery of Victoria. 1997. Archived from the original on 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  24. ↑ Bardon, Geoffrey; James Bardon (2004). Papunya – A place made after the story: The beginnings of the Western Desert painting movement. University of Melbourne: Miegunyah Press. ISBN 0-522-85110-X.
  25. 1 2 Papunya Tula Artists (2008-08-25). "Statement on behalf of Makinti Napanangka by Papunya Tula Artists" (PDF). Northern Territory Department of Natural Resources, Environment and The Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  26. 1 2 Napanangka, Makinti (2000). "Untitled". AGNSW collection record. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  27. ↑ "50 Most Collectible Artists". Australian Art Collector. 23. Jan–Mar 2003. Archived from the original on 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
  28. ↑ "50 Most Collectible Artists". Australian Art Collector. 27. Jan–Mar 2004. Archived from the original on 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
  29. ↑ "50 Most Collectible Artists". Australian Art Collector. 31. Jan–Mar 2005. Archived from the original on 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
  30. ↑ "50 Most Collectible Artists". Australian Art Collector. 35. Jan–Mar 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
  31. 1 2 3 4 "Clemenger Contemporary Art Award: Makinti Napanangka". National Gallery of Victoria. 2003. Archived from the original on 2008-08-01. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  32. 1 2 3 "Makinti Napanangka wins top Indigenous art prize". ABC News. 2008-08-16. Archived from the original on 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  33. ↑ "A special art auction raises thousands for kids‘ health". Deadly Vibe. Vibe Australia / Menzies School of Health Research. Archived from the original on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  34. ↑ 26th Telstra national Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (August 2009). Catalogue. Northern Territory Government.
  35. ↑ Togart Contemporary Art Award (NT) 2009, The Toga Group, Darwin, NT, p. 33
  36. ↑ "Napanangka, Kumantjayi". It's An Honour. Australian Government. Archived from the original on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  37. ↑ McCulloch, Alan; Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch Childs (2006). The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. Fitzroy, Victoria: Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press. p. 136. ISBN 0-522-85317-X.
  38. ↑ Engledow, Sarah; Andrew Sayers (2008). The Companion. Canberra: National Portrait Gallery. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-9775761-2-8.
  39. ↑ "18th Biennale of Sydney posthumously presents leading Western Desert artist" (PDF). Media Release. Papunya Tula Artists. 12 March 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  40. ↑ "25th Silver Jubilee National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards" (PDF). Room brochure. Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
  41. ↑ Isaacs, Jennifer (1989). Australian Aboriginal paintings. Sydney, NSW: Weldon Publishing. pp. 9–16. ISBN 1-86302-011-X.
  42. ↑ Langford, Ben (2008-08-16). "Winning painting 'singing' to judge". Sunday Territorian. Archived from the original on 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  43. ↑ Caruana, Wally (7 June 2011). "Makinti Napanangka". In Sotheby's Australia. Important Aboriginal Art (auction catalogue). Melbourne: Sotheby's Australia. p. 54.
  44. 1 2 Smee, Sebastian (2000-03-24). "Thrivin' in the '70s". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 24.
  45. ↑ Ryan, Judith (2003). "Makinti Napanangka". Clemenger Contemporary Art Award 2003: Exhibition Catalogue. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria.
  46. ↑ Nelson, Robert (2003-09-24). "Talents uncovered". The Age (Melbourne. Archived from the original on 2003-09-25. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
  47. ↑ "Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Collection: Napanangka, Makinti". National Gallery of Australia. Archived from the original on 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  48. ↑ "A–Z List of artists". Queensland Art Gallery. Archived from the original on 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  49. ↑ "Sales information" (PDF). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2009-10-14.

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