Lucy Napaljarri Kennedy

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Lucy Napaljarri Kennedy

AM
Bornc.1926 (2022-08-07UTC16:26)
NationalityAustralian
Known forPainting

Lucy Napaljarri Kennedy AM (born c. 1926) is a Walpiri and Anmatyerre-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. One of the first Indigenous women artists to paint in acrylics, her work has been exhibited at major galleries around Australia, and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1994 for services to the Yuendumu community.

Contents

Life

Lucy Napaljarri Kennedy was born circa 1926. [1] [2] The ambiguity around the year of birth is in part because Indigenous Australians operate using a different conception of time, often estimating dates through comparisons with the occurrence of other events. [3]

'Napaljarri' (in Warlpiri) or 'Napaltjarri' (in Western Desert dialects) is a skin name, one of sixteen used to denote the subsections or subgroups in the kinship system of central Australian Indigenous people. These names define kinship relationships that influence preferred marriage partners and may be associated with particular totems. Although they may be used as terms of address, they are not surnames in the sense used by Europeans. [4] [5] Thus 'Lucy Kennedy' is the element of the artist's name that is specifically hers.

Lucy is a senior woman of the community at Yuendumu, Northern Territory [6] and, as well as being a working artist, Lucy has been a member of Yuendumu community council. [2] She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1994, for services to the Yuendumu community. [7]

Art

Background

Contemporary Indigenous art of the western desert began when Indigenous men at Papunya began painting in 1971, assisted by teacher Geoffrey Bardon. [8] Their work, which used acrylic paints to create designs representing body painting and ground sculptures, rapidly spread across Indigenous communities of central Australia, particularly following the commencement of a government-sanctioned art program in central Australia in 1983. [9] By the 1980s and 1990s, such work was being exhibited internationally. [10] The first artists, including all of the founders of the Papunya Tula artists' company, had been men, and there was resistance amongst the Pintupi men of central Australia to women painting. [11] However, there was also a desire amongst many of the women to participate, and in the 1990s large numbers of them began to create paintings. In the western desert communities such as Kintore, Yuendumu, Balgo, and on the outstations, people were beginning to create art works expressly for exhibition and sale. [10]

Career

Lucy is "one of the first women painters to paint on canvas with acrylics" and her work has been widely exhibited. [6] According to Dussart, the senior women were the first to paint in acrylics at Yuendumu—in 1983, a year before the men. As a senior Yuendumu woman, it is likely that Lucy Kennedy was one of these first painters, though Dussart does not name individuals, instead noting that "30 of the most senior women of the settlement decided to pool their ritual knowledge to produce enough painted objects to purchase a used Toyota Land Cruiser". [9] As well as participating in regular exhibitions at the Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment in Alice Springs, Lucy Kennedy's paintings have been part of shows at the South Australian Museum (1988, 1989), the Auckland Art Gallery (1991), and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (2000). [6] Lucy was also a collaborator on the 1997 group work Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. [12]

As well as painting, Lucy Kennedy has also worked as a printmaker, creating works with the Northern Australia Print Workshop in 2003. These works were titled miinypa jukurrpa, or native red fuchsia dreaming, and examples are held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. [13]

Works by Lucy have been collected by the National Gallery of Victoria, [1] and the National Gallery of Australia, which holds a 2003 print by Lucy, miinypa jukurrpa [Native red fuchsia dreaming]. [13]

Collections

Related Research Articles

Yuendumu is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia, 293 km (182 mi) northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami Road, within the Central Desert Region local government area. It ranks as one of the larger remote communities in central Australia, and has a thriving community of Aboriginal artists. It is home to Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media, which produced the TV series Bush Mechanics.

Biddy Rockman Napaljarri is a Walpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She has been painting since 1986, and her work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Tjunkiya Napaltjarri was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She is the sister of artist Wintjiya Napaltjarri.

Peggy Rockman Napaljarri is a Warlpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born on what is now Tanami Downs pastoral station in the Northern Territory, she learned English when working as a child with a white mining family; Peggy Rockman and her family were subsequently relocated by government authorities to Lajamanu, a new community west of Tennant Creek. Peggy Rockman is one of the traditional owners of Tanami Downs.

Takariya Napaltjarri is an Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She has painted with Papunya Tula artists' cooperative. First exhibited in 1996, her work is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Parara Napaltjarri was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her paintings are included in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Louisa Lawson Napaljarri (Pupiya) was a Warlpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Louisa commenced painting at Lajamanu, Northern Territory in 1986. Her work is held by the National Gallery of Victoria.

Helen Nelson Napaljarri, also known as Helen White Napajarri or Helen Spencer Napaljarri, is a Walpiri-speaking Aboriginal artist from Australia's Western Desert region. A literacy worker in Yuendumu, Northern Territory, Napaljarri began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists in the 1980s. Her paintings are held by the Art Gallery of South Australia and South Australian Museum. She has contributed to several bilingual language books in Walpiri and English.

Kitty Pultara Napaljarri is an Anmatyerre-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born at Napperby Station east of Yuendumu, Northern Territory, she worked on the station and first learned to paint there around 1986. Her work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia and South Australian Museum.

Sheila Brown Napaljarri was a Warlpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. A contributor to major collaborative paintings by Indigenous communities, her works are also held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the South Australian Museum.

Maggie Napaljarri Ross is an Aboriginal Australian artist. Her work has been collected by Artbank and the Kluge-Ruhe Museum in the United States.

Topsy Gibson Napaltjarri, also known as Tjayika or Tjanika, is a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region.

Nora Andy Napaltjarri is a Warlpiri- and Luritja-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. like her mother Entalura Nangala, Nora has painted for Indigenous artists' cooperative Papunya Tula. Her work has been exhibited at the Gauguin Museum in Tahiti, and is held by Artbank.

Ada Andy Napaltjarri is a Warlpiri– and Luritja–speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Ada was born near Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, and has lived in several Northern Territory communities. She began painting in the early 1980s at Alice Springs and probably played a role in the development of interest in painting in the communities in which she has lived.

Ngoia Pollard Napaltjarri is a Walpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Ngoia Pollard married Jack Tjampitjinpa, who became an artist working with the Papunya Tula company, and they had five children.

Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri (c.1954–2011) was a Pintupi- and Luritja-speaking Aboriginal artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her paintings are held in major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia.

Mona Rockman Napaljarri is a Warlpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her paintings and pottery are held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Norah Nelson Napaljarri is a Warlpiri-speaking Aboriginal artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Norah Nelson began painting in 1986 and has exhibited her works both in Australia and other countries. Her paintings and pottery are held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Napaljarri or Napaltjarri is one of sixteen skin names used amongst Indigenous Australian people of Australia's Western Desert, including the Pintupi and Warlpiri. It is one of the eight female skin names. Skin names are often treated by Western cultures as equivalent to a surname; as a result the name is familiar to many as that of prominent Indigenous figures, such as artists Tjunkiya Napaltjarri, her sister Wintjiya Napaltjarri, and Linda Syddick Napaltjarri.

Josepha Petrick Kemarre is an Anmatyerre-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from Central Australia. Since first taking up painting around 1990, her works of contemporary Indigenous Australian art have been acquired by several major collections including Artbank and the National Gallery of Victoria. Her paintings portray bush plum "dreaming" and women’s ceremonies. One of her paintings sold at a charity auction for A$22,800. Josepha Petrick's works are strongly coloured and formalist in composition and regularly appear at commercial art auctions in Australia. Her art appears to have survived the huge contraction of the primary art market in Australia since 2008. There is no existing Catalogue raisonné of Josepha Petrick's artworks, to date, no fakes have been cited.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Lucy Napaljarri Kennedy". NGV Collection. National Gallery of Victoria. Archived from the original on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  2. 1 2 "Lucy Napaljarri". Dictionary of Australian Artists Online. 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
  3. ↑ Birnberg, Margo; Janusz Kreczmanski (2004). Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region. Marleston, South Australia: J.B. Publishing. pp. 10–12. ISBN   1-876622-47-4.
  4. ↑ "Kinship and skin names". People and culture. Central Land Council. Archived from the original on 10 November 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
  5. ↑ De Brabander, Dallas (1994). "Sections". In David Horton (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia . Vol. 2. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. p. 977. ISBN   978-0-85575-234-7.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Birnberg, Margo; Janusz Kreczmanski (2004). Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region. Marleston, South Australia: J.B. Publishing. p. 206. ISBN   1-876622-47-4.
  7. ↑ "Search Australian Honours: Kennedy, Lucy Napaljarri". It's an honour. Australian Government. Retrieved 22 September 2009.
  8. ↑ Bardon, Geoffrey; James Bardon (2006). Papunya – A place made after the story: The beginnings of the Western Desert painting movement. University of Melbourne: Miegunyah Press.
  9. 1 2 Dussart, Francoise (2006). "Canvassing identities: reflecting on the acrylic art movement in an Australian Aboriginal settlement". Aboriginal History. 30: 156–168.
  10. 1 2 Morphy, Howard (1999). Aboriginal Art. London: Phaidon. pp. 261–316.
  11. ↑ Strocchi, Marina (2006). "Minyma Tjukurrpa: Kintore / Haasts Bluff Canvas Project: Dancing women to famous painters". Artlink. 26 (4).
  12. ↑ "Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming)". Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art > Paintings. Art Gallery of New South Wales. 1997. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  13. 1 2 3 "Lucy Napaljarri Kennedy (1926 – ) : miinypa jukurrpa l". Prints and printmaking Australia Asia Pacific. National Gallery of Australia / Gordon Darling Australia Pacific Print Fund. Retrieved 22 September 2009.
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