Keepers of place catalogue

KEEPERS OF PLACE new works from Papunya Tjupi

Candy Nelson Nakamarra painting at Papunya Tjupi 2015 Photo Helen Puckey

KEEPERS OF PLACE

new works from Papunya Tjupi For 45 years, the name Papunya has been synonymous with contemporary Indigenous art.

However for several decades after its 1970s inception, with the advent of the homelands movement and the exodus of a number of Papunya’s founding artists back to their traditional lands, painting at Papunya itself was sporadic.

In 2005 senior artists Long Jack Phillipus and Michael Jagamara Nelson asked Professor Vivien Johnson, long time Papunya scholar, to work with them to establish an Aboriginal-owned art centre at the community. In 2006 Papunya Tjupi Arts, named after the important Honey Ant Hills creation site, was established.

Predominant in this new school are works by women artists – many of whom are the relatives of some of the Western Desert’s most famous artists.

Now nine years into their sustained painting practice, the work of Papunya Tjupi artists has reached a new level of finesse. In their graphic imagery and lyrical overdotting, the paintings of Martha McDonald Napaltjarri reflect a similar quality to those of her famous father, Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi.

Candy Nelson Nakamarra’s intricate designs and striking colour sense are entirely her own, yet also pay homage to the early work of her father, the famed Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula whose Kalipinypa (Water Dreaming) site she paints. The fluid monochromes by Mary Roberts and Charlotte Phillipus dazzle in finely wrought, intricate line work.

The pared down imagery of new works by Doris Bush and Tilau Nangala – the region’s most senior cultural woman – show a particularly exciting new development with their use of pastel and paint in works of striking graphic intensity, evocative of the ancient rock engravings of the Western Desert.

The 22 paintings of these and other artists in Keepers of Place: new works from Papunya Tjupi speak of an inspirational story of artistic regeneration – reminiscent of the early days of Papunya painting itself and of a tradition both utterly contemporary and entirely ancient.

Susan McCulloch, 2016

Beyula Puntungka Napanangka Kalinykalinypa Tjukurrpa acrylic on linen MM1883 152 x 61 cm $2500

Beyula Puntungka Napanangka Kalinykalinypa Tjukurrpa acrylic on linen MM1895 122 x 71 cm $2600

Beyula Puntungka Napanangka Kalinykalinypa Tjukurrpa acrylic on linen MM1878 198 x 122 cm $5900

Candy Nelson Nakamarra Kalipinypa acrylic on linen MM1882 122 x 91 cm $2900

Candy Nelson Nakamarra Kapi Tjukurrpa Kalipinypa acrylic on linen MM1884 152 x 91 cm $3300

Candy Nelson Nakamarra Kalipinypa acrylic on linen MM1897 152 x 122 cm $4200

Charlotte Phillipus Napurrula Tali acrylic on linen MM1889 152 x 91 cm $3500

Doris Bush Nungarrayi Papa Tjukurrpa - Nyumannu pastel on linen MM1888 152 x 61 cm SOLD

Doris Bush Nungarrayi Papa Tjukurrpa - Nyumannu pastel on linen MM1896 183 x 107 cm $3900

Isobel Gorey Nambajimba Kapi Tjukurrpa - Wantupunyu acrylic on linen MM1900 152 x 91 cm $3900

Isobel Major Nampitjinpa Yumari acrylic on linen MM1894 122 x 71 cm $1800

Martha McDonald Napaltjarri Warlukuritji acrylic on linen MM1890 122 x 71 cm $3200

Martha McDonald Napaltjarri Warlukuritji acrylic on linen MM1891 122 x 46 cm SOLD

Mary Roberts Nakamarra Yalka Tjukurrpa (Bush Onion) - Murini acrylic on linen MM1879 152 x 91 cm $3300

Mary Roberts Nakamarra Yalka Tjukurrpa (Bush Onion) - Murini acrylic on linen MM1893 152 x 61 cm $2800

Maureen Poulson Napangardi Kapi Tjukurrpa - Kalipinypa acrylic on linen MM1880 152 x 91 cm $3300

Maureen Poulson Napangardi Kapi Tjukurrpa - Kalipinypa acrylic on linen MM1881 122 x 91 cm $2200

Mona Nangala Tali acrylic on linen MM1887 152 x 61 cm $1800

Mona Nangala Tali acrylic on linen MM1899 183 x 107 cm $3900

Tilau Nangala Kapi Tjukurrpa - Mikantji acrylic on linen MM1885 122 x 71 cm $2400

Tilau Nangala Mikantji acrylic on linen MM1892 122 x 46 cm $1800

Tilau Nangala Kapi Tjukurrpa - Mikantji acrylic on linen MM1898 122 x 71 cm $2400

Exhibiting artists

Beyula Putungka Napanangka Candy Nelson Nakamarra Charlotte Phillipus Napurrula Doris Bush Nungarrayi Isobel Gorey Nambajimba Martha McDonald Napaltjarri Mary Roberts Nakamarra Maureen Poulson Napangardi Mona Nangala Tilau Nangala

Beyula Puntungka Napanangka

Beyula Puntunkga Napanangka (b. Papunya, 1966) has been exhibiting with Papunya Tjupi Arts since the company’s first exhibition in 2007.

Since then, her paintings have developed dramatically. She is the daughter of pioneer Papunya Tula painter Limpi Tjapangati whom she observed painting as a young girl, later practising for herself on cardboard. Beyula grew up in Papunya, attending the local primary school, where she completed Year 6. Later the family moved to Haasts Bluff where they remained until Limpi died in 1985. Beyula moved back to Papunya and married her first husband, with whom she had two daughters. From her father Beyula inherited rights to the country near the Murini Range, which Beyula often depicted in her early paintings. She also inherited a bushfire story Kali Karringpa from her grandmother, which was her first to paint. Her mother’s Dreaming place was the Dingo Dreaming site of Nyumanu near Kintore.

These days Beyula paints her own dramatic version of the Honey Grevillea Dreaming story inherited from her grandfather. The works’ strength lies in the abstracted organic lines that forms an immersive space where the viewer can feel and see the grevillea all at once.

Beyula is one of Papunya Tjupi’s most senior and consistent artists.

She had her first two-woman show in 2013 at Mossenson Gallery in Melbourne and had her work acquired by the National Gallery of Australia in the same year.

Her work has been shown in more than 30 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi works since 2008, and is in the collections of NGA, Artbank and leading private collections in Australia and internationally.

In 2016 she was selected as a finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Candy Nelson Nakamarra

Candy was born in 1964 Yuendumu. Her mother was Gladys Napanangka and her father, the renowned Papunya Tula artist Johnny Warangkula. Her mother was visiting Yuendumu on cultural business when she gave birth to Candy. Candy grew up in Papunya with her parents and brothers and sisters, Lindsay, Mike, Narlie and Dennis Nelson. Candy attended Papunya school and Yarara College in 1980.

Johnny Warangkula taught his children how to paint while passing down all the family stories to them. They all paint the Kalipinypa Water Dreaming story, which Candy continues to explore and reinvent in her painting. Candy has three children and her husband has passed away.

Candy became a member of Papunya Tjupi in 2009.

Since, she has proved herself to be a very committed artist who comes to the Art Centre every day. In 2014 Candy was nominated by the members to take on the role of a Director of Papunya Tjupi Arts for the first time.

She has exhibited in over 40 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi since 2009, was winner of the Interrelate Acquisitive Prize as part of the Wollotuka Acquisitive Art Prize (WAAP) in 2012 and is in the Collection of the Macquarie Bank.

Charlotte Phillipus Napurrula

Charlotte Phillipus (b. 1957) is the eldest daughter of Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra and his first wife Suzette Napaltjarri, who was the daughter of important Pintupi elder Kamutu. Charlotte has worked since she was 16 years old. At 16 Charlotte married Huey Ward, with whom she had two boys. She had her first daughter, Lyn Ward, when she first started to work. She has been active in various teaching roles in Papunya School, especially the preschool. A highly intelligent and articulate woman, she has recently retired due to health issues. She is a Grandmother of two and lives in Papunya where her extended family also reside.

Over the years painting at Papunya Tjupi, Charlotte has developed her own unique and meticulous version of Kalipinypa water dreaming that focuses on the Tali (sand) aspect of her country. She also paints her own distinct style of “children’s stories” that she developed when working at the Papunya School. Many of her illustrations can be found in the archive of the school from the days when teaching in traditional language was encouraged. Occasionally Charlotte will apply her children’s stories as dot paintings on canvas. She hopes to one day publish a book of her children’s stories and paintings.

She has exhibited in over 25 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi Arts since 2012, and her work is held in the collection of the University of Western Sydney.

Doris Bush Nungarrayi

Doris Bush Nungarrayi was born circa 1942 at Haasts Bluff. Her father, who was Warlpiri, came in to the ration depot from his country west of Nyrripi and around Kintore after the birth of Doris’s eldest brother Wirri Tjungurrayi. Her mother Yalkutjari Nakamarra was a Pintupi woman from the Kintore region whose father was ‘boss’ for the Kintore region and is buried there. Doris is a contraction of Dorothy - she is also known by her “bush name” Darinji. She had a younger sister also called Dorothy (b.1952) whose “bush name” was Danisa. Doris grew up at Haasts Bluff where she met and married George Bush Tjangala, a Luritja/ Amnatyerre speaking man whose family came from just west of Alice Springs.

Together they had three sons, Kenny, Christopher and Simon. Doris has six granchildren; granddaughters Stephanie, Benita, Verina and Chelsea-Anne and grandsons Gavin and Joshua. George Bush was one of Papunya Tula Artists’ original shareholders, though he did not paint much for the company apart from a brief period in the early 1980s. In the mid 1980’s the family went to live on an outstation at Nulyumanu in Doris’s mother’s country out towards the WA/NT border. Later the couple divided their time between Papunya and Alice Springs, where George painted for the ‘government gallery’ (Centre for Aboriginal Artists and Craftsmen) in Alice Springs. After her husband’s death in 1997, Doris spent increasing amounts of time in Papunya. Doris was a familiar figure in some of the Aboriginal art galleries of Alice Springs, asking for canvas and paints, although she received no encouragement.

After Papunya Tjupi Arts was established in late 2007, Doris quickly became one of the most prolific and enthusiastic painters in the community and is usually the first to arrive each morning when - or even before - the doors open. In March/April 2012 she had her own solo exhibition at Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern Sydney, the first artist to do so under the auspices of Papunya Tjupi. In 2013 she exhibited alongside Beyula Puntungka Napanangka in a two person show at Mossenson Galleries, Melbourne, and since 2009 she has shown in over 50 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi Arts. Her work is held in the collections of Artbank, Macquarie Bank Collection and the University of Western Sydney.

Isobel Gorey Nambajimba

Isobel Gorey Nambajimba was born at Laramba, Northern Territory, in 1958. Her father was a Warlpiri/Anmatyerre man who moved from his country, Wantapunyu, to Ti Tree where he worked as a stockman on Narwietooma station. Her Mother was an Arrente woman from Hermannsburg. When Isobel was eight years old her family moved to Papunya where she attended Papunya School and later boarded at Yirara College in Alice Springs. Upon return to Papunya, Isobel married her first husband and had four children. Isobel has worked for World Vision in Papunya as an aged-care worker as well as at the Papunya Clinic as a health worker and then in community health education. Isobel is a founding member artist and Director of Papunya Tjupi Arts where she has been painting since 2006. After experimenting with many different painting techniques and ways of depicting her Tjukurrpa stories, she arrived at her current distinctive personal style. Isobel is currently on the board for the community organisation Waltja, that looks after Aboriginal families in desert communities around Alice Springs. She is also a board member for DesArt, a supporting body for the art centres of Central Australia.

Isobel is a leader in the women’s song and dance for this country. She said, “I paint for the future of my culture and for the family”.

Her work has been exhibited in over 50 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi Arts since 2008, and is held in the collections of Artbank, the University of Western Sydney and the Knoblauch Collection, Switzerland.

Isobel Major Nampitjinpa

Isobel Major was born in Alice Springs Hospital in 1975. She is the daughter of Punata Stockman Nungurrayi and her late husband Peter Major Tjangala, and the granddaughter of Papunya Tula artist Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri. Isobel has a twin sister Sheila and another sister Maggie. Isobel paints the dreaming stories that have been passed down to her from both sides of her family. Isobel mostly paints her grandmother’s dreaming from west Kintore and east of Kiwirkurra, a place called Yumarri. This is the story of a forbidden love story between 2 people of the wrong skin. Isobel is married to Patrick Poulson and they have 4 children; Peter, Rosemary and the twins Sharnie and Sheranna. Isobel has worked as an Arts Worker at Papunya Tjupi since its beginning in 2007.

Since 2015 Isobel has been a Director of Papunya Tjupi and in 2016 was also nominated to sit on the Executive Board of Desart, the governing body for central Australian art centres. Her work has been exhibited in over 30 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi Arts.

Martha McDonald Napaltjarri

Born at Haasts Bluff c.1940, Martha McDonald Napaltjarri (also known by her ‘bush name’ of Tjulata) is the daughter of founding Papunya Tula artist Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi and his first wife. Shorty also married Martha’s mother’s sister Napulu Nangala after the death of her first husband and raised her six children (Linda, Wintjiya, Pamela, Brenda, Donald and Paul) as his own.

Martha never attended school, except as a ‘house girl’ or cleaner for the upstairs part of the school. She also worked with linguist John Heffernan in the Papunya Literature production and Adult Education program and in the Papunya pre-school alongside her sister Linda Tjunkaya Syddick Napaltjarri. Martha is very proud of her language and is a skilled teacher, always offering to teach language to visitors and staff at the art centre. She married Snowy McDonald and together they had two sons and a daughter, Deborah, who now lives in Adelaide. Martha resides in the tranquil surroundings of Blackwater outstation, a few kilometres outside Papunya, with Deborah’s son John Scott Rowe and his wife Margaret Lane and their two sons and one daughter, along with John’s sister Janet and her husband Daniel Long and their three children.

Martha has been painting for a long time, but said that she had not learnt from watching her father since “in those days only men, no kungka [women]” painted”. She began painting in 2008 for Papunya Tjupi and rapidly emerged as a talented painter. She is inspired by her fathers painting and memories of visiting her fathers country Warlukuritji and the stories she knows about it. She is an important elder in the Papunya community and a Director of Papunya Tjupi Arts. In 2015 she had her first sell-out solo show at RAFT Artspace in Alice Springs who continue to represent Martha. Her work has appeared in over 50 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi Arts since 2007, and her work is held in the collections of University Of Western Sydney, University Of Wollongong, and University Of New South Wales, Art & Design, Sydney.

Mary Roberts Nakamarra

Painting goes back two generations in Mary Roberts’ family, but so far she is the only one of her five siblings to take up painting. Born in 1974, she joined Papunya Tjupi in 2008, having been taught how to paint on canvas by her father Murphy Roberts Tjupurrula, who was one of the most respected senior lawmen in the Papunya community and also a Lutheran pastor. Murphy worked in the church at Haasts Bluff while Mary was a young girl and she remembers watching her maternal grandfather Limpi Tjapangati, one of the early Papunya Tula painters, working on his canvases. Elements of his distinctive style are discernible in Mary’s work.

Mary attended school at Haasts Bluff until she was eleven years old, when the family moved to Papunya, where her father continued his role as a Lutheran pastor and also worked in the Papunya school, composing many titles for the Literature Production Centre. After completing her studies at Yirara College in Alice Springs, Mary returned to Papunya where she worked for ten years in the Papunya preschool as a teachers aid. Mary’s aunty Lorabelle Puntungunka, her mother’s younger sister, joined Papunya Tjupi Arts at the outset.

It was Lorabelle who told Mary she should paint her grandfather’s stories. Mary said, “she told me to paint before she passed away. I was thinking that I want to paint that story”. Mary continues to refine her distinct visual language and is now one of the most sought after artists of Papunya Tjupi.

Her work has been shown in over 30 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi Arts and is held in the collection of the University of Western Sydney.

Maureen Poulson Napangardi

Maureen Napangardi Poulson (b. 1958) and her sister Alice live in Papunya where they paint for Papunya Tjupi Arts. The sisters’ older brother Brogas Tjapangardi, who now lives in Alice Springs, painted for Papunya Tula Artists in the 1970s and early 1980s. Their father was Jimmy Tjukurrpa, a Ngaliya man whose country was Kunatjarri and Pikilyi. Their mother was Pilyari Napurrula, a sister of Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, who shared with him country around Ilpilli, Kalipinypa and Tjikari whioch Maureen and her siblings also share.

Maureen grew up and went to school in Haasts Bluff. The family moved to Papunya in 1960. She has lived at Papunya ever since.

She married and has two sons and two daughters but as yet no grandchildren. She started painting in 2008 and is usually one of the first to arrive in the morning. Maureen spends many focused and dedicated hours on her dazzling diamond shaped designs representing her main dreaming story of Kalipinypa, a water dreaming site west of Kintore. Maureen says that she paints for enjoyment.

Her work has been exhibited in over 40 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi Arts, and is held in the collections of Artbank and the University of Western Sydney.

Mona Nangala

Mona was born in Haasts Bluff, south of Papunya in 1938. Her mother was Alungtu Napangarti. She attended school at the Haasts Bluff Mission School. She has lived between Papunya and Haasts Bluff, and various cattle stations such as Narwietooma, northeast of Papunya. Her husband, Michael Corey was a stockman. When she was younger Mona worked with her husband cooking for the stockmen at their camps.

Mona currently lives on an outstation 3 miles from Papunya past the Warampi Hills with her extended family.

Mona has been painting at Papunya Tjupi since 2011 initially painting her women’s story. In recent years though Mona has been focusing on her own unique expression of the Tali (Sandhill) painting which are increasingly sought after by national and international collectors.

Mona comes to Papunya Tjupi Art Centre on most days and sits for hours placing dot after dot on her Tali paintings with great care and attention.

Her work has been exhibited in four group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi Arts since 2015.

Tilau Nangala

Tilau Nangala was born c. 1933 at Haasts Bluff of Ngaliya/Warlpiri parents. Tilau never attended school - during her childhood the family still lived in the bush, supplementing their diet of bush tucker with supplies collected from Haasts Bluff ration depot. When the family came across from Haasts Bluff to Papunya in the first days of the settlement, Tilau was already married, with two young daughters.

Two more daughters and a son were born in Papunya. Ever since, Tilau has lived at Papunya, where she worked in the Papunya Hospital, in the old Papunya communal kitchen and more recently in the Papunya School, passing on her love of dancing to the children.

Tilau is a senior law woman. Her deeply felt knowledge of country and ceremony empowers her bold lyrical and expressive paintings depicting the topography of hills and creeks that create the feeling of flowing water. The great Water Dreaming site of Mikantji she inherited from her father is nearly always her subject. She says her auntie taught her culture and stories but she developed her own ideas on how to paint it.

She paints “so the children can watch me paint and learn, so I can pass on my Dreaming and stories to my grandchildren. Papunya is my mother’s brother’s country.” In the past, Tilau was a prodigious carver of coolamons and clap sticks and maker of ininti seed necklaces, but these days she mainly paints - and has also produced prints with Cicada Press College of Fine Arts UNSW. Her work has been exhibited in over 40 group exhibitions of Papunya Tjupi Arts since 2008.

Maureen Poulson Napangardi painting in the studio at Papunya Tjupi, 2015 Photo Helen Puckey

KEEPERS OF PLACE new works from Papunya Tjupi 24 May – 4 June, 2016 McCulloch & McCulloch in association with Papunya Tjupi Arts 45 Downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Above: Martha McDonald Napaltjarri, Warlukuritji, 2016, acrylic on linen, 122 x 46cm Front: Doris Bush Nungarrayi, Papa Tjukurrpa – Nyumannu, 2015, pastel on linen, 152 x 61cm