Makinti Napanangka is a Pintupi speaker who was born sometime around
1930 in the Lake MacDonald region. She and her family walked in to
Haasts Bluff before the Papunya Community was established.
She began painting in acrylic during the mid 1990s as a member of
the Haasts Bluff-Kintore painting project conducted at Kintore by
Marina Strocchi, the art coordinator at Haasts Bluff. She quickly
developed her own distinctive style and has been painting regularly
with the Papunya Tula Artists cooperative since 1996.
Her paintings typically consist of a complex pattern of pale lines
over an orange or ochre-coloured background. This is then set off
with mauve or bright yellow highlights.
Makinti's work incorporates designs associated with the travels of
the Kungka Kutjarra (two women). The wandering lines that so often
feature in her paintings depict the swirling hair string skirts worn
by women during ceremonies associated with certain sites.
While the patterning refers to the skirts, the flowing rhythms of
the lines hint at the songs and dances of the Pintupi women's ceremonies.
While most of Makinti's imagery is related to the Kungka Kutjarra,
it can also refer to the Kuningka - the western quoll - which
is represented by circles.
Makinti has participated in numerous group exhibitions and has had
three solo shows: at Utopia Art in Sydney in 2000 and 2001 and at
Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne in 2002. Her work is represented
in many major public and private collections in both Australia and
overseas.
Utopia Art's director, Chris Hodges, says Makinti Napanangka is the
central desert's "best painter since Emily [Kngwarreye]".
Hodges believes the artist has no living match in her painterly freedom,
and her fearless blend of naive and sophisticated elements.
She was rated in the March 2003 issue of "Australian Art Collector"
magazine as one of the 50 most collectable artists in Australia and was the winnder of the overall award at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award for 2008.
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Aboriginal desert artists biographies
Makinti
Napanangka - Pintupi Artist
