Ningura Napurrula BIOGRAPHY 

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Ningura paintings are top-quality unique works of art with good composition and superb tone of colour, have the physical presence of much contemporary work of art.

Ningura Napurrula is of one of the eight great Australian artists whose work is featured in the collection of the Europe’s most important public museum Musée du quai Branly in Paris. Ningura Napurrula signature work (in black and white motif) is superimposed eternally on the ceiling of Musée du quai Branly for the future generations alike famous Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Ningura Napurrula is one of the most important as well as Australia's most collectable artists (Australian Art Collector no. 37). Ningura work is in very high demand by international as well as Australian collectors.

Ningura has exhibited extensively within Australia and around the world including in Aborigena at the Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, Italy (2001); Australian Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Prague, Toskansky Place, Prague, Czech Republic (2003); Masterpieces from the Western Desert, Gavin Graham Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2003).

Awards and Important Commissions:
2002 Alice Prize
2001 18th Telstra Art Award, Australian National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Award
2002 Australian Post - the Stamps Ningura Napurrula (Pintupi),

The Harold Mitchell Foundation and the Australia Council showcasing in the permanent collection of one of the Europe’s most important public museum, Musee Quai Branly works of eight great Australian artists in Paris:

1. Ningura Napurrula (Papunya Tula)

2. Paddy Bedford (Warmun)

3. John Mawurndjul (Arnhem Land

4. Lena Nyadbi (Warmun)

5. Michael Riley (urban)

6. Judy Watson (urban)

7. Tommy Watson (Papunya)

8. Gulumbu Yunupingu (Yirrkala)

View:  http://www.artaborigene.fr/documents/PRESS-RELEASE-Feb2006.pdf.

Ningura was part of the original group of the higher-ranking women from “Kintore” and “Kiwirrkura” who began painting for the famous Papunya Tula Artists which founded the Aboriginal Art Movement in 1971.

COLLECTIONS
Musée du quai Branly Paris
National Museum of Women in the Arts Washington
Australian Institute Aboriginal Collection Canberra
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Collection
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Australian Tourism collection Adelaide
Art Gallery of Western Australia
The Palace of Japan Tokyo
Art Gallery of South Australia
National Gallery of Australia
National Museum of Australia
HOOD Museum of Art Hanover
The Harold Mitchell Foundation
Alice Springs Art Price Collection
Queensland Art Gallery
National Gallery of Victoria
Homes a Court Collection
Architecture Australia magazine
Art Bank, Sydney
Kelton Foundation USA
Donald Kahn Collection USA

Ningura was part of the original group of the higher-ranking women from “Kintore” and “Kiwirrkura” who began painting for the famous Papunya Tula Artists which founded the Aboriginal Art Movement in 1971. Ningura Napurrula work is dynamic, abounding strong lines with powerful colour and composition and she was part of the original group of the higher-ranking women from “Kintore” and “Kiwirrkura” who began painting for the famous Papunya Tula Artists. The Papunya Tula Aboriginal Art Movement began in 1971 when Geoffrey Bardon a white school teacher encouraged few higher-ranking Aboriginal people, who held vitally important tribal positions and were instrumental in the instruction of young Aboriginals, to paint their Dreamings. Without European philosophy of perspective, using the aboriginal colors and traditional iconography, the artists depict the “Dreamings” and their relationship with the land. This was an experiment which had staggering results and the Aboriginal Art Movement has began.

EXHIBITIONS
2000 - William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
2006 – Paris, Musee du Quai Branly.
2005 - Papunya Tula Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
2004 - Mythology and Reality - Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection,
           Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne;
           Peintres Pintupi, Galerie DAD,
           Mantes-la-Jolie, France.
2003 - Glen Eira City; Mason Gallery at Japinka WA;
           Gabriella Pizzi, Melbourne;
           Australian Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Toskansky Place, Prague, Czech Republic;
           Masterpieces from the Western Desert,
           Gavin Gallery, London, UK.
2002 - Araluen Art Centre.
2001 - Telstra Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory;
           Pintupi, Alice Springs; Aborigena,
           Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, Italy.
2000 - Gabrielle Pizzie Melbourne; Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of NSW .
1999 - Utopia Art Sydney.
1996 - Papunya Tula, Alice Springs

Bibliography: Geoffrey Bardon ; Ryan, Judith; Pizzi, Gabrielle; Stanhope, Zara., Mythology and Reality - Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2004.

Ningura Napurrula Gibson
Born:                    1938
Region:                 Western Desert
Community:           Kintore
Outstation:             Lake McKay
Language:             Pintupi
Local group:           Pintupi

Ningura Napurrula Gibson was born around 1938 at Watulka in Western Australia, south of the modern Kiwirrkura community, Ningura Napurrula moved to Papunya in the early days of the settlement with her husband (now deceased). She is the widow of Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, a highly respected Pintupi elder who held significant knowledge of his countries Dreaming stories. In 1996 she was part of a group of elderly women from Kintore and Kiwirrkura who began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in their own right. Characteristic of her work is a strong dynamism and rich linear design-compositions created with heavy layers of Acrylic paint.

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NN0752

Ningura Napurrula born 1938

Acrylic on Belgian Linen

152 x 65 cm

 NN0728

Ningura Napurrula born 1938

Acrylic on Belgian Linen

152 x 65 cm

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NN256

Ningura Napurrula born 1938

Acrylic on Belgian Linen

122 x 60 cm