NINGURA NAPARRULA GIBSON - Women's Ceremony

Ningura Napurrula was born around 1938 at Watulka, deep in the Gibson Desert country south of Kiwirrkurra. She grew up living a traditional desert life, and first came out of the desert in 1962 with a Northern Territory Welfare Branch patrol when her young son needed medical treatment at Papunya. She and her family later settled at Kintore (Walungurru).

She was married to Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, one of the founding artists of Papunya Tula in the early 1970s and a leading painter of the men's Tingari style. For years Ningura worked alongside him, filling in the backgrounds of his canvases. In 1996 she began painting in her own right, as part of the celebrated group of senior Kintore and Kiwirrkurra women who started painting for Papunya Tula Artists a movement that reshaped Western Desert art.

Her paintings are heavily layered, physical, and built on strong linear design. She painted the country and ceremony of her female ancestors, returning again and again to the rockhole site of Wirrulnga, a women's birthing site east of Kiwirrkurra.

In 2002 her work appeared on an Australia Post stamp. In 2006 she was one of only eight Indigenous Australian artists and the sole female desert artist commissioned for the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, where her women's design is painted permanently into a first-floor ceiling. She was named among Australia's 50 Most Collectable Artists by Australian Art Collector in 2007 and 2008. Her work is held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Queensland Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Victoria, among many others.

Ningura passed away in 2013. Her sons Morris and Adam continue the family's painting.

Out of respect for Pintupi cultural protocol, we do not display photographs of the artist. Her name is used only as necessary to identify the work.

This painting was purchased directly from Ningura. A gallery Certificate of Authenticity is provided with sale. It can be hung vertically or horizontally.