DOB: 1965 c.1960 - Utopia, Northern Territory
Known as: Anna Price, Anna Pitjara, Anna Petyarre, Anna Price Pitjara (Petyarre)
Skin name: Petyarre
Language: Anmatyerre
Country: Atneltyeye (Boundary Bore), Utopia homelands, approximately 220km north-east of Alice Springs
Anna is the daughter of the late Glory Ngale (Ngarla) and niece to the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye. She's also related to Kudditji Kngwarreye through her grandfather, who was Emily and Kudditji's father's brother.
Like many Utopia women of her generation, Anna began her artistic life working in batik on silk and cotton, moving to acrylic on canvas in the 1980s and starting her professional painting career in 1996. Her early work favoured bold, linear brushstrokes; today she's best known for fine, intricate dot work, often in striking black and white.
Anna's Dreamings:
· My Country (Atneltyeye) - her most recognised recent body of work. Fine dot work builds an aerial view of her grandfather's country, tracing sandhills, waterholes and ceremonial sites.
· Yam Seed - the seed pods of the bush yam, ground into flour and a staple food source for her ancestors. She's said to paint this Dreaming to the rhythm of ceremonial song, giving thanks for the plant's abundance.
· Bush Yam - the plant's underground root system, shown through looping, interwoven lines tracing how the tubers spread beneath the soil in search of water.
· Yam Flower - the flowering top of the yam plant, a story she shares with her aunt Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
· Wildflower - the flush of new blooms and bushland growth that follows fire moving through the desert, a story of renewal and regeneration of country.
· Wild Potato (Bush Potato) - another key bush tucker plant traditionally gathered by Anmatyerre women, prepared as a food source in the same way as the bush yam.
· Emu - one of the significant food and totemic animals of the region, often depicted through tracks, feathers or eggs as markers across country.
· Campsite - the gathering points and resting places used by family groups while moving across country, tied to the movement and history of her family's land.
· Awelye (Women's Dreaming / Body Paint) - ceremonial body paint designs worn for women's ceremony, tied to law, country and identity.
Awards: Selected finalist, 15th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA), Darwin, 1998 - Australia's most prestigious Indigenous art prize. Finalist, Calleen Art Award, Cowra Art Gallery, 2021.
Held in the collections of: the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; the National Museum of Australia, Canberra; Artbank; the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; the Kerry Stokes Collection; and the Holmes à Court Collection, Perth.
This painting was purchased directly from Anna, and a gallery certificate of authenticity will be provided with the sale.
