Women's Ceremonial Painting, 2000

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

180 x 60 cm

Est. $5,000 – $7,000

Provenance: Kimberley Australian Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, Vic Cooee Art, Sydney, NSW, Cat No. AANA0006 Private Collection, Israel Accompanied by certificates of authenticity from Kimberley Australian Aboriginal Art and Cooee Art Gallery, and a photograph of the artist with the work.
Artwork story: At the rockhole site of Marrapinti, to the west of the Kiwirrkura Community, a large group of senior women camped to make marrapinti — the ceremonial nose-bones that give the site its name, worn by the older generation on ceremonial occasions and now rarely seen. The women later travelled east through the Kiwirrkura area. The arcs that fill this canvas in warm gold, olive and pale grey are the sandhills that surrounded them on that journey. For years the women of Kintore and Kiwirrkura had helped their husbands, some of the most significant painters of the Western Desert, without recognition or acknowledgement for their contribution. It was only in the mid-1990s that they began painting in their own right, and in 1997 the Art Gallery of NSW marked that shift by acquiring sixteen paintings by senior women from these communities. Nungurrayi was among the first, commencing with Papunya Tula Artists in early 1996, and by 2000 was one of the most senior artists at Kintore. The photograph of Nungurrayi with this canvas laid out before her travels with the work.

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Sale 3 · Lot 64

c.1932 – 2021

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

180 x 60 cm

Est. $5,000 – $7,000

Provenance: Kimberley Australian Aboriginal Art, Melbourne, Vic Cooee Art, Sydney, NSW, Cat No. AANA0006 Private Collection, Israel Accompanied by certificates of authenticity from Kimberley Australian Aboriginal Art and Cooee Art Gallery, and a photograph of the artist with the work.
Artwork story: At the rockhole site of Marrapinti, to the west of the Kiwirrkura Community, a large group of senior women camped to make marrapinti — the ceremonial nose-bones that give the site its name, worn by the older generation on ceremonial occasions and now rarely seen. The women later travelled east through the Kiwirrkura area. The arcs that fill this canvas in warm gold, olive and pale grey are the sandhills that surrounded them on that journey. For years the women of Kintore and Kiwirrkura had helped their husbands, some of the most significant painters of the Western Desert, without recognition or acknowledgement for their contribution. It was only in the mid-1990s that they began painting in their own right, and in 1997 the Art Gallery of NSW marked that shift by acquiring sixteen paintings by senior women from these communities. Nungurrayi was among the first, commencing with Papunya Tula Artists in early 1996, and by 2000 was one of the most senior artists at Kintore. The photograph of Nungurrayi with this canvas laid out before her travels with the work.