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Watiya Jukurrpa, 1999
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Mitjili Naparrula, born 1945
After the first wave of innovation by men of the western desert, women began to emerge with strong distinctive styles of their own. Mitjili Naparrula watched her brother and husband paint before taking up brushes herself. She chooses to focus on mulga trees that grow on her father’s land, where the trees stand out against red sandhills and above bushes and grasses. Pushing the tree branches to the limits of the canvas, she suggests the vivid play of growth against the shimmering sands.
Wati Kutjarra (Two Brothers Dreaming), 2004
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Tjumpo Tjapanangka, 1929–2007
Two brothers created land forms and models of behavior that appear in many narratives of the Western Desert. In this painting, they have created a vast salt-encrusted lake known as Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay). Tjumpo Tjapanangka reminds us of their presence by gently inserting two vertical lines at the top and bottom to indicate where the brothers camped. Across the middle is a white line where they built a protective windbreak. His formal symmetry reflects the ordered nature of ancestral creation. Known for walking vast distances himself, the artist’s work is committed to his custodianship of these epics and the sites that he grew up in.
Utopia Aboriginal Art: An Aboriginal Painting from the Central Desert
Utopia Aboriginal Art and artists today follow the tradition of the famous artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who paved the way for a contemporary and abstract style depicted in fine dotting work. Women artists dominate this community. They maintain their traditional ceremonial ways by paying homage in their art work to their role as food gatherers.
Bush Melon by Minnie Pwerle
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