"},"parts":[{"template":{"target":{"wt":"#tag:ref","function":"tag"},"params":{"1":{"wt":"The exact year of Dickie Minyintiri's birth is not known. The National Gallery of Australia estimates that he was born some time between 1913 and 1917."}},"i":0}}]}"> [6] He was born in the bush at Pilpirinyi, Western Australia, near the border with South Australia. [7] His childhood was spent living nomadically in the desert with his family. [8] Their homelands were spread over a large area along the border, but they often travelled far to the east for ceremonies. [7] They camped for several years around the Musgrave Ranges near what would later become the settlement of Ernabella. [8] This was prior to the arrival of White people in the area; the family had their first contact with Western civilisation in the 1920s, when Minyintiri was still a child. They encountered a group of men on camels attempting to pull their truck out of a bog. [7]
Minyintiri and his family were present for the establishment of the mission settlement of Ernabella in 1937. They settled on the mission with several other Aboriginal families, [7] [8] and Minyintiri has lived at Ernabella ever since. He worked for most of his life as a shepherd and shearer, but became a widely respected ngangkaṟi (traditional healer) in his later years. [7] He is now one of the most senior elders in his community. [8] Before he became a painter, Minyintiri crafted traditional wooden tools (mostly spears). [4]
Minyintiri began painting at Ernabella Arts in late 2005. [4] He painted at the art centre for a few hours each day, while his wife (now deceased) would wait outside the centre with their dogs. [2] Minyintiri originally painted on paper, but now paints on canvas. His works have been shown in many group exhibitions since 2006, [8] in most major Australian cities. The South Australian Museum was one of the first public galleries to show his work, which it did in a 2007 exhibition. [4]
Most of Minyintiri's paintings are done using synthetic polymer paint on canvases, although his earliest paintings were done on paper. [8] His paintings are almost always multi-layered with strong motifs and symbols used to represent landmarks or figures. [9] Each layer represents a different memory or part of a creation story. [4] Because of his old age, Minyintiri only paints six to eight artworks a year. Nearly all of them are large canvases. [10]
His paintings depict sacred stories from his Dreaming. He paints songlines, or the journeys taken by the ancestral beings of his Dreaming country – such as the kanyaḻa (euro), malu (red kangaroo), wiilu (stone-curlew), waru (wallaby) and kaḻaya (emu). His art is often also a reflection of his younger life in the desert, before settling permanently at Ernabella. [2] The religious elements of his works are always obscured, for cultural reasons. [9]
Examples of Minyintiri's work are held in the National Gallery of Victoria, [11] the Art Gallery of South Australia, [7] the Art Gallery of New South Wales, [8] the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, [12] and the National Gallery of Australia. [5]
In 2010, Minyintiri's painting Malukutjina ("Red Kangaroo Tracks") was chosen as a finalist for the 27th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. The award was won by Jimmy Donegan, another Pitjantjatjara artist, from Kalka. [13] Minyintiri won the 28th NATSIAA in August 2011, for his painting Kanyalakutjina ("Euro Tracks"). His work was chosen from over 300 entries, which had been reduced to 61 finalists. Minyintiri was about 96 at the time. [14] With Donegan winning the award the year before, it was the second year in a row that an artist from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands had won. [9]
Kanyalakutjina is a multi-layered synthetic painting, done on a large canvas. [14] [15] The background is made up of pale yellows and oranges, [16] and is covered with a complex network of thick, ivory-coloured lines. Flashes of blue, black and pink peep through the surface lines. [4] [17] The judges praised Minyintiri for his subtle use of colour. [16] His work was compared to the early batik works of Emily Kngwarreye. [3]
The painting depicts a sacred men's ceremonial site near Pilpirinyi. [4] The network of lines traces the tracks of ancestral spirits (kangaroos, dogs and emu) to important waterholes, [4] where men also went for their ceremonies. [9] [16] Each layer and line is a memory of a journey Minyintiri has made. [10] The painting is therefore a reflection of the artist's years of travelling his country, [15] and an expression of his ancestral relationship to the land. [16]
Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, also known as APY, APY Lands or the Lands, is a large, sparsely-populated local government area (LGA) for Aboriginal people, located in the remote north west of South Australia. Some of the Aṉangu (people) of the Western Desert cultural bloc, in particular Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra peoples, inhabit the Lands.
Pukatja is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands".
Jimmy Donegan is an Aboriginal Australian artist. His painting Papa Tjukurpa munu Pukara won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2010. He speaks Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra. His work is held in several major private galleries in Australia and Europe; the only major public gallery to hold one of his works is the National Gallery of Victoria.
Anmanari Brown is an Australian Aboriginal artist. She was one of the pioneers of the art movement across the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands, which began in 2000. Since then, her paintings have gained much success. Her work is held in the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Queensland Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Australia.
Hector Tjupuru Burton was an Australian Aboriginal artist. He is a leading artist from Amaṯa, in north-western South Australia. His work has been shown in exhibitions since 2003, in several cities in Australia and other countries. His first solo exhibition was held in 2004 in Melbourne. Examples of his paintings are held in the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Flinders University.
Eileen Yaritja Stevens was an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. Although she had brief career of less than four years, she quickly became one of the most successful artists of her generation to paint in the style of the Western Desert. Her work is now held in several major public art collections across Australia.
Wingu Tingima was an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. She was born in Great Victoria Desert, and grew up living a traditional way of life in the bush, without any contact with Western civilization. A member of the Pitjantjatjara people, she painted spiritual stories from her Dreaming. Along with her friend and colleague Eileen Yaritja Stevens, Wingu became one of the most well-known artists to paint in the style of the Western Desert.
Ginger Nobby Wikilyiri is an Australian Aboriginal artist from Nyapaṟi, South Australia.
Tjungkara Ken is a Pitjantjatjara artist from Amata, South Australia, in the APY lands. She began painting in 1997, when Minymaku Arts was opened by the women of Amaṯa. She started painting professionally in 2008. By that time, the artists' co-operative had been renamed Tjala Arts.
Maringka Baker is an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. She lives in the Pitjantjatjara community of Kaṉpi, South Australia, and paints for Tjungu Palya, based in nearby Nyapaṟi.Maringka is known for her paintings. Maringka paints sacred stories from her family's Dreaming (spirituality). As well as the important cultural meanings they carry, her paintings are known for being rich in colour and contrast. She often paints the desert landscape in bright green colours, and contrasts it against reds and ochres to depict landforms. She also uses layers of contrasting colours to show the detail of the desert in full bloom.
Nura Rupert was an Australian Aboriginal artist from north-west South Australia. She was also a ngangkari until her death in 2016. She produced two primary kinds of art works. She produced her print works using intaglio methods of printmaking. The designs are drawn by etching and linocutting, and the prints are done on paper. Her second medium of choice is making punu, wood carvings often decorated with a hot poker.
Jimmy Baker was an Australian Aboriginal artist.
Milyika Carroll, also known as Alison Carroll, Alison Milyika Carroll, or "Windlass" Carroll, is an Aboriginal Australian artist. She is also a community leader on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia.
Angkaliya Curtis is an Australian Aboriginal artist. She paints animals from the central Australian desert.
Tiger Palpatja was an Australian Aboriginal artist from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands.
Tjunkaya Tapaya is an Aboriginal Australian artist. She is most recognised for her batik work and is one of the best-known batik artists in Australia. Her works also include acrylic paintings, weaving, fibre sculpture, ceramics, wood carving and printmaking. Most of Tapaya's paintings depict places and events from her family's dreaming stories. Her batik work is of the classic Ernabella style, which eschews the Indonesian use of repeated block printed designs in favour of hand-drawn freehand designs or "walka". These "walka" are pure design and do not refer to, or contain reference to, dreamings or "tjukurpa".
Malya Teamay is an Aboriginal Australian artist. He is also an administrator of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park, serving as a member of its Board of Management. As an artist, Teamay works for Walkatjara Art Uluṟu. This art centre is part of the Uluṟu–Kata Tjuṯa Cultural Centre located inside the national park. Examples of Teamay's paintings are held in the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, and the Museum of Victoria.
Harry Tjutjuna is an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. He belongs to the Pitjantjatjara people. Tjutjuna began painting in 2005. He held his first solo exhibition in 2007, in Darwin. His work is now held in several major public galleries in Australia, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the National Gallery of Australia. His painting Ninuku Tjukurpa was a finalist for the Togard Contemporary Art Award in 2009. In 2010 and 2011, another of Tjutjuna's paintings, Wati Nyiru munu Wati Wanka, was chosen as a finalist in both the Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards, and the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA).
Betty Muffler is an Aboriginal Australian artist and ngangkari (healer). She is a senior artist at Iwantja Arts, in Indulkana in Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, South Australia, known for a series of works on large linen canvases called Ngangkari Ngura .
Paniny Mick was an Aboriginal Australian artist from Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. She was born in the Rocket Bore, Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, South Australia which, and died in Mparntwe, Northern Territory.