Travels of a Group of Women near Umari Rockhole, 2004

synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

153 x 93 cm

Est. $5,000 – $7,000

Hammer $4,400

Provenance: Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, Alice Springs, NT, Cat No. WN 0406100 Private Collection, Vic Lawson Menzies, Aboriginal Art Auction, Sydney, NSW, 9 November 2005, Lot 40 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Accompanied by certificates of authenticity from Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd and Lawson Menzies
Artwork story: Her Jukurrpa centres on the sites, journeys and ceremonies of the Gibson Desert women's traditions west of Kintore, and Walangkura painted them with the authority of someone born in that same country. Her visual language is exact: concentric circles fix the sacred sites while parallel lines render the surrounding country as pure movement. In Travels of a Group of Women near Umari Rockhole that language is at full strength. Papunya Tula's documentation records that near Tjukurla a group of women made hair-string skirts in preparation for ceremony and gathered kampurarrpa (the desert raisin of Solanum centrale) before carrying that knowledge home across the sandhills. Dense lines in deep crimson, warm orange, and broken cream sweep across the greater part of the linen, the sandhills rendered as lateral surge, while large concentric circles press inward, each centred on a small roundel: sites and seeds held together as a single ceremonial fact. By 2004 Walangkura had established herself among the most collected Pintupi painters of her generation, her work held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, and the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.

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Sale 3 · Lot 69

Walangkura Napanangka I (Uta Uta’s Wife)

b. c.1946

Region: Western Desert
Community: Kintore (Walungurru)
Language group: Pintupi

Travels of a Group of Women near Umari Rockhole, 2004

synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

153 x 93 cm

Est. $5,000 – $7,000

Hammer $4,400

Provenance: Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, Alice Springs, NT, Cat No. WN 0406100 Private Collection, Vic Lawson Menzies, Aboriginal Art Auction, Sydney, NSW, 9 November 2005, Lot 40 Private Collection, NSW, acquired from the above Accompanied by certificates of authenticity from Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd and Lawson Menzies
Artwork story: Her Jukurrpa centres on the sites, journeys and ceremonies of the Gibson Desert women's traditions west of Kintore, and Walangkura painted them with the authority of someone born in that same country. Her visual language is exact: concentric circles fix the sacred sites while parallel lines render the surrounding country as pure movement. In Travels of a Group of Women near Umari Rockhole that language is at full strength. Papunya Tula's documentation records that near Tjukurla a group of women made hair-string skirts in preparation for ceremony and gathered kampurarrpa (the desert raisin of Solanum centrale) before carrying that knowledge home across the sandhills. Dense lines in deep crimson, warm orange, and broken cream sweep across the greater part of the linen, the sandhills rendered as lateral surge, while large concentric circles press inward, each centred on a small roundel: sites and seeds held together as a single ceremonial fact. By 2004 Walangkura had established herself among the most collected Pintupi painters of her generation, her work held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, and the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.