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Lorna Fencer
Napurrula
Biography
(circa 1920 to 2006)
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Lorna Fencer Napurrula (1920 -2006) is
an
important Australian artist.
Lorna Fencer work is represented around the world including
Museum of Holland,
Japan Palace Tokyo,
HOOD Art Museum
Hanover,
Art Gallery of South
Australia,
Queensland Art Gallery,
Art Bank, Sydney,
National Gallery of
Victoria,
National Museum of Australia,
Homes a Court Collection,
Art Gallery of Western
Australia,
Museum and Art Gallery of
the Northern Territory,
National Gallery of
Australia,
Laverty Collection Sydney,
Anthropology Art Museum,
Kerry Stokes Collection,
Australian Heritage Commission Collection in Canberra,
Margaret Carnegie Collection,
Gold Coast Art Gallery Arts
Centre,
Günter Myer
Collection of Aboriginal Art
Leeuwin,
Alice Spring Museum,
Donald Kahn Collection USA,
Richard Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica
USA,
National Museum of Women
Arts
Washington,
Victorian Art Centre,
Christensen collection.
Lorna was a Senior
Warlpiri Custodian and one one of the first artists, in a
small group of women who produced first paintings at
Lajamanu.
In her later years Lorna
found a new freedom and joy of expression that radiates from her colour-rich
canvases.
Lorna was a
skilled painter and since 1986 she developed a distinctive
style with rich, vivid colour and liberal use of paint are
the signatures of her work.
Lorna Fencer
biography
is in 'Australian Encyclopedia Aboriginal
Artists dictionary of biographies'
page 262.
Lorna
was very creative and a skilled painter of decorative body designs for
ceremonies and traditionally painted on coolamons and
digging sticks and for ceremonial purposes (body and ground
paintings). In 1986 she painted on canvas for the first time
and had gone on to develop a rich, distinctive style. Vivid
colour and liberal use of paint are signatures of her work.
Lorna
Fencer Napurrula, born about 1920 (at
Yartula Yartula)
she
passed
away in 2006. Lorna
was a Senior
Warlpiri Custodian and
one of the first,
among a very small group of women who produced the first
paintings at Lajamanu.
Lajamanu’s history as an Aboriginal settlement goes back to
1949, when several hundred Warlpiri people were taken by
truck from Yuendumu to Catfish waterhole – 600km north
across the inhospitable Tanami Desert. The Federal
Government was concerned that outbreaks of disease would
occur unless the population was limited at Yuendumu. The new
settlement was located in the ‘buffer zone’ between
traditional territories of the Warlpiri and Gurindji people.
Lorna
Fencer was among the many Warlpiri people relocated to
Lajamanu along Hookers Creek, where a government settlement
had been established. This country is the traditional land
of the
Gurindji Aboriginal people. Despite relocation, Lorna Fencer
retained her cultural identity through ceremony, story telling and
painting her art.
Lorna
Fencer Napurrula
inherited stories about the land
Yumurrpa
located South of the Granites Mine in the area in Tanami Desert, Northern Territory.
Represented in the Australian National Gallery, National
Gallery of Victoria, other State Galleries and major private
collections, Napurrula's work has always been in strong
demand.
Napurrula, a senior Warlpiri woman, was born about 1923 at
Yartulu Yartulu, and is custodian of inherited lands of
Yumurrpa, situated near Chilla Well, south of the Granites
Mine Area of the Tanami Desert. Her fathers country is
Wapuurtarli. In 1949 many of the Warlpiri people, including
Napurrula were forcibly transported to the government
settlement of Lajamanu at Hookers Creek, situated in the
country of the Gurindji people, 250 miles to the north of
their own country around Yuendumu. Napurrula nevertheless
maintained and strengthened her cultural identity through
ceremonial activity and art, and asserted her position as a
prominent elder and teacher in the community.
Lorna
Fencer Napurrula main stories (Dreamings) are about the gathering and growth of bush foods such as
the
Yarla (Yam),
Wapirti and
Marlujarra. These
Dreamings (stories) entitle her to paint subjects such as the bush
yam (sweet potato),
ngalatji (little white flower), bush tomato, berry,
caterpillar (luju),
wallaby, onion, water and particular men's stories
including boomerangs.
The Yarla is an important Dreaming for the
Warlpiri women, and a staple food source in the Western Desert. Lorna
paints in her distinctive expressive style. Along with
visually describing the Yarla, some paintings contain information about
when to gather this food source and how to find it.
The use of vibrant
colours and layering creates an exuberance and depth to her work, not
often seen in painting of this region, more typically known for its dot
work.
Medium: Chromacryl acrylic,
Reeves Liquicryl on pre-primed unstretched cotton
duck on canvas pre-primed art board,
acrylic paint on Coolamons, Kudurru [fighting stick],
acrylic paint on quartz rock chunks and slate,
bean tree wood acrylic paint on canvas.
Subjects and
Themes: Yarla, Wapirti and Marlujarra.
Paints:
Sweet potato,"ngalatji" little white flower, bush tomato, bush yam.
Born:
around 1920
Died: December, 2006
Region: Tanami Desert
Community Centre: Lajamanu
Art Centre or Agency: Warnayaka Art Centre
Outstation or Country: Yumurrpa, near Yuendumu
Language Bloc: Ngarrkic
Language: Warlpiri
Social Affiliations: Napurrurla subsection
COLLECTIONS:
Museum of Holland
Japan Palace Tokyo
HOOD Art Museum
Hanover
Art Gallery of South
Australia, Adelaide
Queensland Art Gallery,
Brisbane
Art Bank Sydney
National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne
National Museum of Australia
Homes a Court Collection,
Perth
Art Gallery of Western
Australia, Perth
Museum and Art Gallery of
the Northern Territory, Darwin
National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra
Laverty Collection Sydney
Anthropology Art Museum
Kerry Stokes Collection
Australian Heritage Commission Collection Canberra
Margaret Carnegie Collection
Gold Coast Art Gallery Arts
Centre
Günter Myer Collection of Aboriginal Art
Leeuwin
Alice Spring Museum
Donald Kahn Collection USA
Richard Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica
USA
National Museum of Women
Arts
Washington
Victorian Art Centre
Christensen collection
Awards
1997 Gold Coast City Art Award, Queensland.
1998 John
McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, Australian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
1997- John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize
National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne)
Selected Exhibitions:
1988
People, Place
and Art,
Hilton International Hotel,
Adelaide, South Australia
1988, People,
Place and Art, Hilton International Hotel, Adelaide, South
Australia
1991, Aboriginal Art, Australian Embassy, Washington USA
1991, Paint Up Big: Warlpiri Women's Art from Lajamanu, National
Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court of Australia
Canberra, ACT
1991 Aboriginal Art and
Spirituality, High Court of Australia;
1991
Aboriginal Art, Australian
Embassy, Washington, USA;
1991
Paint up Big Warlpiri Women’s Art from
Lajamanu, Australian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;
1994, Yapakurlangu Wirrkardu, Batchelor College, Tennant Creek,
Northern Territory
1994
Yapakurlangu Wirrkardu
exhibition, Australian North Territory;
1996, All About Art, Alcaston
Gallery, Melbourne
1996
Rainbow Serpent, Vaucluse, NSW;
1996
All
About Art, Melbourne
1997, Women's
Body Paint, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1997, Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Victoria,
Melbourne
1997, Me Warlpiri, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1997
Yumarlpa Stories
exhibition, Original and Authentic Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne;
1997
Women’s Body
Paintings from Lajamanu, Australian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;
1997
Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1997/8, John
McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, National Gallery of Victoria,
Melbourne
1998, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra, Australian
Capital Territory
1998, Yulyulu, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1998, 6th Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Exhibition Building,
Melbourne
1998, Warnayaka Warlpiri, Karen Brown Gallery, Darwin
1998
Me Warlpiri
exhibition Melbourne
1998
6th Australian
Contemporary Art Fair, Exhibition Building, Melbourne;
1998 John
McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, Australian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;
1998, Wild
Warlpiri Women, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney
1999, Australian Embassy in Washington D.C.
1999, United Nations Building New York, USA
1999, Yapa, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1999 St Valentine’s Exhibition, Brisbane;
1999
Tracks Across the Landscape,
Land Rover Showroom, Sydney
1999 Yapa exhibition, Melbourne
2000, Lajamanu,
Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, Western Australia
2000, Opening of Yuwayi Art Centre, Yuwayi Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2001, Little Gems, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, Western
Australia
2001
A Tribute to Lorna Napurrula Fencer,
Original & Authentic Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne
2002, Lorna
Napurrula Fencer, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, Western Australia
2002, Lorna Napurrula Fencer - The Big Picture, Vivien Anderson
Gallery, Melbourne
2002, Lorna Fencer - Inner Spring - New Works from the Tanami,
Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
2003, 20th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern
Territory, Darwin.
2003 Yumarlpa
Stories, Original & Authentic Aboriginal
Art Gallery, Melbourne
2004, The
Dancers - Warlpiri Women, Art Mob, Hobart; Colour Power -
Aboriginal Art Post
1984, The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia,
Melbourne.21st Telstra National Aborigainal and Torres Strait
Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern
Territory, Darwin
2005, Lorna Napurrula Fencer: Recent Paintings, Hogarth
Galleries, Sydney; All About Yumarrpa, Vivien Anderson Gallery,
Melbourne
2005, Decouvrir, Rever, Investir, Australian Embassy, Paris,
France
2005, Lorna Napurrula Fencer passed away in December 2006.
Selected
Bibliography:
Glowczewski, B., 1991, Yapa, Peintres Aborigenes de Balgo et
Lajamanu, Lebon Gallery, Paris, Johnson, V., 1994, The
Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East
Roseville, New South Wales. (C), Ryan, Judith - Paint up Big
Warlpiri Women's Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne,
Isaacs, J - Spirit Country - Contemporary Australian Aboriginal
Art, Hardie Grant Books, South Yarra, Victoria, Ryan, Judith.
Colour Power - Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne, 2004.
© Discovery Media,
Documentation Pty Ltd, and the Australian Institute of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
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