Mitjili Napurrula
Nulla Nullas, 2005
Acrylic on canvas
35.6 x 111.8 cm (14 x 44 in), 3 of
MINA-PT-2
Born circa 1945-2019 Language Group: Pintupi Born near Haasts Bluff Mitjili Napurrula has a strong family connection to the central Desert art movement. Her family includes celebrated artists Turkey Tolson...
Born circa 1945-2019
Language Group: Pintupi
Born near Haasts Bluff
Mitjili Napurrula has a strong family connection to the central Desert art movement. Her family includes celebrated artists Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Long Tom Tjapanangka and Tjunkayi Napaltjarri. Mitjili Napurrula began as many of the women artists of the Central Desert did, by assisting her famous husband Long Tom Tjapanangka in producing paintings. By the 1990s many women artists emerged from the shadows of their more famous men folk to establish their own reputations as artists.Mitjili Napurrula uses the traditional method of repeated motifs to express the extensive and significant role of the watiya trees in the Tjukurrpa rituals around the making of spears. Mitjili Napurrula was taught the ways of her father’s Tjukurrpa by her mother – the imagery was drawn in the sand to show the representations of the creation story. Mitjili Napurrula has made the iconography her own, showing the spreading root system of the watiya trees that provide the all-important wood for spear- making.
About painting - Nulla Nullas
Nulla Nullas are wooden implements used by the women as digging sticks. They are used to dig up witchetty grubs and goannas from their holes. They also make very handy weapons if needed.
Language Group: Pintupi
Born near Haasts Bluff
Mitjili Napurrula has a strong family connection to the central Desert art movement. Her family includes celebrated artists Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Long Tom Tjapanangka and Tjunkayi Napaltjarri. Mitjili Napurrula began as many of the women artists of the Central Desert did, by assisting her famous husband Long Tom Tjapanangka in producing paintings. By the 1990s many women artists emerged from the shadows of their more famous men folk to establish their own reputations as artists.Mitjili Napurrula uses the traditional method of repeated motifs to express the extensive and significant role of the watiya trees in the Tjukurrpa rituals around the making of spears. Mitjili Napurrula was taught the ways of her father’s Tjukurrpa by her mother – the imagery was drawn in the sand to show the representations of the creation story. Mitjili Napurrula has made the iconography her own, showing the spreading root system of the watiya trees that provide the all-important wood for spear- making.
About painting - Nulla Nullas
Nulla Nullas are wooden implements used by the women as digging sticks. They are used to dig up witchetty grubs and goannas from their holes. They also make very handy weapons if needed.