Mitjili Napurrula
Australian Aboriginal Artist
Mitjili Napurrula Other Spellings: Michelee Born: c. 1945 Died: 2019 Region: Western Desert Language: Pintupi Area: Kintore Social Affiliation: Napurrula subsection Subjects: bloom, Mitukatjarrila Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas
Awards:
1999 Alice Prize (Central Australian Art Award), Alice Springs
1997 14th Telstra NATSIAA, finalist
1994 Northern Territory Art Award, Alice Springs
1993 The Australian Heritage Award, Canberra
Collections held:
Alice Springs Art Foundations, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Artbank, Sydney
Campbelltown Regional Gallery, Campbelltown
Edith Cowan University Art-Sammlung, Perth
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Gantner Myer-Sammlung, de Young Museum, San Francisco
Mornington Peninsula Art Gallery, Mornington
Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Privatsammlungen
Solo Exhibitions:
1996 Mitjili Napurrula, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australien
1998 Mitjili Napurrula, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australien
Group Exhibitions:
1985 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1986 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1991 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1992 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1993 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1993 Australian Heritage Commission. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australien
1994 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1994 Australian Heritage Commission. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australien
1994 Australian High Commission und Hotel Shangri-la, Singapur
1994 Ikuntji: Paintings from Haasts Bluff 1992-1994, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australien
1994 Northern Territory Art Award, Alice Springs, Australien
1994 Yiribana, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australien
1995 12th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australien
1995 Ikuntji: New Art from the Western Desert, Framed - The Darwin Gallery, Darwin, Australien
1995 Mitjili Napurrula and Marlee Napurrula, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, Australien
1995 Northern Territory Art Award, Alice Springs, Australien
1995 Paintings from Haasts Bluff, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, Australien
1995 Works on Paper, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, Australien
1996 3rd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition. The Art of Place, Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australien
1996 Adelaide Fringe Festival Desart Exhibition, Gallerie Australis, Adelaide, Australien
1996 Adelaide Fringe Festival, Desert Exhibition, Adelaide, Australien
1996 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1996 Australian Heritage Commission. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Canberra, Australien
1996-97 13th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; Gold Coast, City Art Gallery; Drill Hall, Canberra; Tandanya, Adelaide; Campbelltown Gallery; Westpac Gallery, Melbourne, Australien
1997 14th National Aboriginal Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australien
1997 28th Alice Springs Art Prize, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1997 Aboriginal Art Galerie Baehr, Speyer, Deutschland
1997 Aboriginal Art, Goteborgs Konstforening, Goeteborg, Schweden
1997 Dreamings, Arnhem, Niederlande
1997 Festival of Drawing Prize, Mornington Peninsula Gallery, Australien
1997 Ikuntji Tjuta in Adelaide, Gallerie Australis, Adelaide, Australien
1997 Ikuntji Tjuta in Canberra, Alliance Francaise, Canberra, Australien
1997 Ikuntji Tjuta in Sydney, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, Australien
1997 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1998 15th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australien
1998 29th Alice Springs Art Prize, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1998 Adelaide Fringe Festival, Desart Exhibition, Adelaide, Australien
1998 Culture Store, Art Gallery, Rotterdam. Niederlande
1998 Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florenz, Italien
1998 Hilton Hotel Art Gallery, Rotterdam, Niederlande
1998 Ikuntji Paintings from Haasts Bluff, Framed - The Darwin Gallery, Darwin, Australien
1998 Ikuntji Paintings, Gallerie Dusseldorf, Perth, Australien
1998 Ikuntji, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, Australien
1998 Kate Challis RAKA Award, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Australien
1998 My Country. Indigenous Art throughout Australia, Fairfield Regional Heritage Centre, Fairfield, Australien
1998 National Heritage Art Award, Canberra, Australien
1998 The Desert Mob Show, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1999 Aboriginal Art, IHK Wuerzburg, Deutschland (in Kooperation mit Aboriginal Art Galerie Baehr, Speyer)
1999 Desert Mob 99, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australien
1999 Ikuntji Tjuta, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Campbelltown, Australien
1999 Ikuntji Walka, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, Australien
1999 Spirit Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Gantner Myer Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, USA
1999 Zeichen des Seins. Malerei der australischen Aborigines, Staedtische Galerie ADA, Meiningen, Deutschland (in Kooperation mit Aboriginal Art Galerie Baehr, Speyer)
2000 Beyond the Pale, 2000 Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australien
2000 Kunst der Aborigines, Leverkusen und Dormagen, Deutschland (in Kooperation mit Aboriginal Art Galerie Baehr, Speyer)
2000 Niagara Galleries, Sydney, Australien
2001 Galerie Knud Grothe, Charlottenlund, Daenemark
2001-2002 Erzaehlungen ueber die Dinge des Lebens. Kunst aus Australien. (Recounting the Essence of Life. Art from Australia). Kunstforum HDZ, Bad Oeynhausen, Deutschland (in Kooperation mit Aboriginal Art Galerie Baehr, Speyer)
Select Bibliography:
Beyond the Pale: Contemporary Indigenous Art. Adelaide Biennal of Australian Art, 2000.
Art Gallery of South Australia (Hrsg.)., Adelaide 2000, Ausst. Kat., ISBN 0730830675
Das Verborgene im Sichtbaren. The Unseen in Scene. Aboriginal Art Galerie
Baehr, Speyer, Kulturabteilung Bayer, Leverkusen, Bayer Australia, Sydney (Hrsg.),
Speyer 2000, Ausst. Kat., ISBN 3980707202
Dreamtime. Zeitgenoessische Aboriginal Art. Edition Sammlung Essl (Hrsg.),
Klosterneuburg 2001, Ausst. Kat., ISBN 3902001038
Fourteenth National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Museum & Art
Gallery of the Northern Territory (Hrsg.), D&D Printing 1997, Ausst. Kat., ISBN 0724544461
Ikuntji Tjuta, Catalogue, 1999
Ikuntji. Paintings from Haasts Bluff 1992-1994. Strocchi, M. (Hrsg.), IAD Press,
Alice Springs 1995, ISBN 094965986X
Isaacs, Jennifer, Spirit Country. Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art. Hardie
Grant Books, Melbourne 1999, und Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1999,
Ausst. Kat. ISBN 1864980494
McCulloch, Susan, Contemporary Aboriginal Art. A guide to the rebirth of an
ancient culture. Allen and Unwin, St Leonards NSW 1999, ISBN 1864486317
The Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award. The Art of Place. Australian
Heritage Commission (Hrsg.). Canberra 2000, Ausst. Kat.
The Fourth National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Heritage Art Award.
Australian Heritage Commission (Hrsg.), Canberra 1998, Ausst. Kat.
The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. Kleinert, S. und Neale, M.
(Hrsg.). Oxford Univ. Press, Melbourne 2000, ISBN 0195506599
Yiribana. Neale, M. (Hrsg.), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1994, Ausst. Kat.
Zeichen des Seins. Malerei der australischen Aborigines. Baehr, Elisabeth und Seele,
Ralf-Michael (Hrsg.), Meiningen 1999, Ausst. Kat., ISBN 393067517X
Details
Recognized as one of the most famous Pintupi women painters and coming from a
patrilineal line of painters Mitjili commenced painting in 1993. Her mother,
Tjunkayi Napaltjarri, was involved in the 'Minyma Tjukurrpa Project' (a collection
of women painters from Kintore and the Ikuntji Womens centre in 1994) and
consequently became one of the principal women painters at Kintore. Her brother
is perhaps the most acclaimed painter in her line - the Great Turkey Tolson
(deceased) who is one of the founding members and principal painters for Papunya
Tula. Her sister, Wintjiya Napaltjarri is one of the three wives of Tupa, Turkey
Tolson's father, and her husband Long Tom Tjapanangka is also a leading painter
at Haasts Bluff who recently won the prestigeous 1999 N.T. Telstra Art Award
and has many works held in public collections nationally.
Turkey Tolson painted the Tjukurrpa or Dreaming associated with the assembly of spears. Representing the female side of this dreaming, Mitjili concentrates on the trees that provide the wood. Taught her fathers dreaming by her mother, Mitjili has a close association with the spear dreaming as her fathers country Ulwalki is where the trees that provide the wood for spear making are found. Her symbolic representations are strongly patterned works with distinctive contrasts in the use of colour. Formative symbols take shape against a dotted white background - creating depth and movement - a playful combination on the eye.
Other Dreamings Mitjili has inherited include Wangunu or Portulaca (small black seeds ground and used to make damper). And Arkatjirri - a fruit similar to a sultana that is found in the bush. A large body of her work includes vibrant reds, yellows and browns which serve to communicate the essence of flowers, many of her works being primarily concerned with their representation. Her superb sense for spacing and colour is distinctively appealing and indicative of her playful manner. Her works are widely collected both publicly and privately and have been exhibited both nationally and internationally.