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Title: MRSB200611-9529
Medium:  Acrylic on Belgian linen
Image Size: 151 x 46 cm

Title: MRSB200612-9532
Medium:  Acrylic on Belgian linen
Image Size:  151 x 46 cm

Nyurapayia Nampitjinpa Biography (aka, Mrs. Bennett)

Birthsite: Yumara which is to the north of Docker River in Western Australia.

Language/Tribal Group: Pintupi/Pitjantjatjara.

Historical:
Nyurapayia Nampitjinpa aka, Mrs Bennett is married to the late John John Tjapangati Bennett, a Pintupi speaker from Mukulurru, also north of Docker River.

Biography Nyurapayia Nampitjinpa was born around 1935, she is an important artist represented by Art Gallery of New South Wales - Sydney, Artbank Sydney; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Darwin; National Gallery of Victoria - Melbourne as well as many corporate and private collections in Australia and around the world. Nyurapayia was a participant in the Kintore-Haasts Bluff collaborative canvas project in 1994. This resulted in an exhibition titled Minyma Tjukurrpa and was held at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in 1995. Other exhibitions of her works include ‘Twenty-five Years and Beyond’ (1999) and Australia Perspective (1999). Nyurapayia favors the use of strong contrasts using blacks and pale yellows/creams set in relief against a red ground. Her designs are based on the stories relating to women’s ceremony and often depict the gathering of traditional bush foods and the rituals that are connected with their preparation. The depictions of the sand dune country and surrounding rocky outcrops bear a relationship to the designs used for body painting during the ceremonial dance referred to as “inma”.

COLLECTIONS:
Art Bank, Sydney; 
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney;
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin;
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;
National Museum of Australia;
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide;
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane;
Homes a Court Collection, Perth;
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth;
Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA;
Art Bank, Sydney;
onald Kahn Collection USA;

NOTES:

Aboriginal art is the most important contemporary art to come out of this ancient land.  Each painting tells a story as well as having an imposing decorative element to the art work. These powerful works of art look superb in modern buildings and they signify, for the people who display them a connection with the present as well as the past. You now have an opportunity to purchase the work of the mature, established artists who have had an original traditional aboriginal upbringing. Aboriginal art is part of a living tradition and as the culture goes through a transition, major changes are taking place in the aboriginal communities and people move to the towns learning western ways. The artist’s age thus it is probably the last chance that anyone on this planet can buy such authentic indigenous work of art.  

Painting:
Nyurapayia was a participant in the Kintore-Haasts Bluff collaborative canvas project in 1994. This resulted in an exhibition titled Minyma Tjukurrpa and was held at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in 1995. Other exhibitions of her works include ‘Twenty-five Years and Beyond’ (1999) and Australia Perspecta (1999). Nyurapayia favours the use of strong contrasts using blacks and pale yellows/creams set in relief against a red ground. Her designs are based on the stories relating to women’s ceremony and often depict the gathering of traditional bush foods and the rituals that are connected with their preparation. The depictions of the sand dune country and surrounding rocky outcrops bear a relationship to the designs used for body painting during the ceremonial dance referred to as “inma".
      

Nyurapayia Nampitjinpa born around 1935,  lives in Kintore and has developed a very free and original style in contrast to artists in Kintore who prefer the very precise dot-painting method. Her painting shows often women camped at the rockhole site of Yumarra, near Tjukula in Western Australia. The roundels show the camp sites of the women who had travelled from Punkilpirri, a large permanent water site, north-west of Docker River in the Walter James Range. They later continued their travels to the north through Tjukula and Tjalili. While at Yumarra the women performed the ceremonies associated with the area. They also gathered the edible berries and seeds growing in the vicinity. The "U" shapes in this painting show women camped at the rockhole site of Yumarra, south of the large permanent warter site of Punkilpirri, north of Docker River. The women later travelled north to Punkilpirri and Tjukula. As they travelled they gathered the edible berries known as kampurarrpa or desert raisin from the small shrub Solanum centrale. The roundels show the camp sites of the women who had travelled from Punkilpirri, a large permanent water site, north-west of Docker River in the Walter James Range. They continued their travels to the north through Tjukula and Tjalili. While at Yumarra the women performed the ceremonies associated with the area. They also gathered the edible berries and seeds growing in the vicinity.