Makinti Napanangka feature

Women's Hair String Ceremony by Makinti Napanangka

Honouring Makinti NapanangkaCentral Art is honoured to present this collection by the Pintupi artist Makinti Napanangka in recognition of her exceptional body of work and to celebrate the public recognition of her as one of the all time great artists in Australia and possibly one of the greatest living artists in Australia today. I met Makinti ten years ago. I was overwhelmed by the complexity and subtlety of her paintings and through an interpreter she told me the story of the Hair String ceremony, says Sabine Haider, Director of Aboriginal Art Store. 'I find her body of work intensely feminine'. In August 2008, Makinti Napanangka was awarded Australia's richest indigenous art prize the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. She was selected from over 300 entries and had been a finalist for this award eight times previously. This award follows the recognition Makinti received in 2003 when the 'Australian Art Collector' magazine listed her as one of the 50 most collectable artists in Australia today - indigenous and non indigenous. However the works of Makinti Napanangka have been recognised and revered by many curators, critics, collectors and other artists.Artist Judy Watson1 who was also one of the judges in the 2008 Telstra Award says 'Makinti's work sings out across the space to me. Even when you turn away and walk around the room you still see that work. It is as though it is infused with an inner light.'Chris Hodges2, Director of Utopia Art believes Makinti Napanangka is the central desert's 'best painter since Emily [Kngwarreye]". Hodges considers the artist has no living match in her fearless blend of naive and sophisticated elements. Ms Hettie Perkins3, one of the judges of the 2008 Awards and a curator at the Art Gallery of NSW said in reference to the winning painting: "It's very dynamic and charismatic and I have to say that from what I know about her, Makinti is very like that. She's quite elderly now, but I think her enthusiasm for art making remains undiluted." Makinti's works are typically pale lines over an ochre and orange background often with highlights in yellow and mauve. Her depictions refer to the Hair String ceremony held at a rock hole at Lupulnga where women stopped on their travels north. The lines represent the hair string belts the women spun from human hair. These belts, worn above the hips, often had feathers attached which swayed as the women sang and danced during ritual and ceremonial occasions. Makinti is able to capture the movement of the Hair String Ceremonial dance with her free flowing and confident brush strokes. Ashley Crawford4 observed Makinti at work which he related in an article in Contemporary Australian Art. "She (Makinti) sits in the middle of the canvas and begins painting her meticulous, meditative lines. With her head no more than twelve inches from the canvas, she painstakingly constructs wave upon wave of line work." Although Makinti Napanangka only commenced painting in 1996 at the age of 71, she has emerged as at the forefront of women indigenous artists and her works are represented in major public and private collections around the world.She is now elderly, frail and with poor sight and although she continues to paint with a spirit and confidence, her works are becoming increasingly rare. Central Art is pleased to be able to showcase these four works which will be placed in the Central Art- The Artists Collection after this exhibition.1 Quoted in The Advertiser 20 August 2008 in an article by Tim Lloyd Aboriginal elder wins nation's top art prize. 2 Quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald 26 August 2008 in an article by Anne Loxely 26 August 2003 3 Reference Australian Broadcasting Corporation News 16 August 2008. 4 Quoted from an article by Ashley Crawford in Contemporary Australian Art

The Makinti Napanangka Artist Feature runs from Thursday September 26 until Friday October 31 2008.

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