016
Dorothy
Napangardi
Warlpiri (born 1956)
Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa, 2001
synthetic polymer paint on linen
198 x 61cm
PROVENANCE
Gondwana Gallery, Alice Springs, NT, cat.no.6956DN; accompanied by original
certificate of authenticity
Birubi Corporation Pty Ltd, Sydney
EXHIBITED
Dancing Up Country, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2002, plate 12,
illus. p24.
In the essay "Form and Content" from the catalogue accompanying
the MCA retrospective, Vivienne Webb describes the evolution of Napangardi’s
work thus:
"The artist uses a grid as a structural device, whereby the intersecting
dotted lines with infill of a different colour prove a rich source for
compositional development. Variations upon this structure with horizontal
flowing lines and a reduction in palette colours were introduced from
1999…The networks of intersecting lines create dynamic compositions
animated by the play of tension, compression and movement. Her paintings
move the viewer‘s eye around the painted surface in multiple directions
and along divergent axes, tracing the flow and progression of dotted lines
as they emerge and disappear, converge and diverge".
In this work the grid and modulated areas of in-fill illustrate the pathways
of the Ancestor Women as they travelled across country, and the significant
events and sites they encountered along the way. Webb notes that "the
formal, abstract qualities…actually represent a strong narrative
basis...Linear tracings across the canvas mimetically trace the movements
and activities of the Women Ancestors as they dance their way through
Spinifex and over sandhills. They repeat the natural formations of the
environment and as such deal very much with the real as opposed to the
abstract."
Webb also notes that colour is a central component of her compositional
repertoire, and that this work, in particular, uses a "deliberately
limited palette of disparate colours" to good effect…the contrasting
range of the "palette of brown ground with ochre and white filigree
dotting…causes the white and yellow linear elements to set up scintillating
relationships with the receding purple-brown base colour".
[ref: Vivienne Webb, "Form and Content" in Dancing Up Country,
MCA exhibition catalogue, pp72-73.]