AUCTION | Aboriginal Works of Art | 4 June 2019

LOT #51 Makinti Napanangka (c. 1930-2011) Untitled (Hairstring at Lulpinga rock hole), 2004 120 x 183 cm synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen $5,000 - 7,000 PROVENANCE Red Sand Art Gallery, Alice Springs, NT Cat No. 081004 Tjala Aboriginal Art, NSW The Mike Chandler Collection, NSW accompanied by a Red Sand Art Gallery certificate of authenticity and an image of the work hanging the the home of Mike Chandler EXHIBITION HISTORY Collector’s Edition, August 2013, Cooee Art Gallery Makinti’s gestural style and bold line work was derived from painting with her fingers dipped in earth ochres onto her clanswomen’s bodies for ceremony. The tactile surfaces of her paintings reflect this touching and sensing, just as her painterly use of colour and form generates a sense of celebration and movement. Through these haptic surfaces Makinti maintains her cultural traditions while the images serve to revivify the journeying of her two ancestral female ancestors, the Kungka Kutjarra as they dance their way across the country. Their travels follow the desert water sources and, particularly in Makinti’s art, Lupulnga, the rockhole where she was born and where her connections to her spiritual origins are felt. Small ovoid roundels, often in linear sequence, denote this crossing of country. Caring for country is an important motivation for this bond, as the water sources must be cleared of debris and sand to keep them, and the life they support, fresh and flowing.