Born: 1945

Died: 2019

Language: Pintupi

Region: Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory

Mitjili Napurrula was born in 1945 at Papunya, 200 kilometres West of Alice Springs. She is the daughter of Tupa Tjakamarra (now deceased) and Tjunkiya Napatljarri. Her mother, Tjunkayi Napaltjarri, was a Pintupi/Luritja woman from Yumari who also became an artist of public repute. Her mother ‘came in’ from the drought-stricken Pintupi/Lurjita country seeking refuge and rations in the remote community of Haasts Bluff (Ikuntji). Along with her extended family, she was settled at Papunya, where Mitjili was born.

Dispossession and drought were only two of the factors that led to a series of migrations from the desert to mission or government settlements in the mid-twentieth century. Following the outstation movement of the late 1970's and early 1980's, Aboriginal communities sprang up throughout the region, each home to a distinctive art movement.

Like many of her generation, Mitjili witnessed the genesis of the Papunya Tula art movement and the artistic contribution made by members of her immediate family. Mitjili's brother, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, was one of the founding members of the Papunya Tula Artists cooperative.

Mitjili grew up in Papunya and moved to Haasts Bluff with her late husband Long Tom Tjapanangka in the late 1980’s during the outstation movement.  The couple started painting at Ikuntji in 1992 with the opening of Ikuntji Women’s Centre, both contributing significantly to the emerging art movement there. She gained an international following after winning the Alice Springs Art Prize in 1999.

In Mitjili's winning painting, Untitled (1999), coagulated white pigment eddies around abstract forms that refer to the Watiya Tjuta (desert oak/spearwood trees) used to make kulatas (spears). The tightly structured patterning of the key motifs and bold use of colour demonstrates the artist’s confidence in her individual artistic vision within a family of superlative artists – and the cultural heritage that continues to inform the myriad expressions of Western Desert artists.

The Watiya Tjuta in Mitjili's paintings is her father’s Tjukurrpa (dreaming) in Ilyingaungau country (Gibson Desert). This was passed down to her by her mother; she remembers  “…After I got married, my mother taught me my father’s Tjukurrpa in the sand, that’s what I’m painting on the canvas”, a women’s interpretation.

Mitjili and her brother, Tjupurrula had the same father, Tupa Tjakamarra, from whom they both inherited the right to paint works related to Ilyingaungau. This site, south of Walungurru (Kintore), some 520 kilometres west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), is where the artist’s Mutikatjirri ancestors assembled their kulata (spears) for a conflict with the Tjukula men. Allusive works that refer to the straightening of kulata by Tjupurrula are among the landmark paintings of the movement’s history.

Mitjili lived at an outstation close to Papunya where she continued to paint in her later years, along side her family and fellow artists such as Ann Lane nee Dixon. Mitjili passed away in April 2019. 

Collections:

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Artbank
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
Edith Cowan University Art Collection, Perth
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Hank Ebes Collection, Melbourne
Kaplan and Levi Collection, Seattle
Fondation Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture, Moitiers, Switzerland

Awards & Recognition

1999 Alice Prize (Central Australian Art Award), Alice Springs
1997 14th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
1996 Heritage Award, Canberra
1995 12th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
1994 Northern Territory Art Award, Alice Springs
1994 Heritage Art Award, Canberra
1993 The Australian Heritage Award, Canberra ACT

Exhibitions:

1994 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs NT
1994 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne VIC
1993 Australian Heritage Art Award, Canberra ACT
1994 Australian Heritage Art Award, Canberra ACT
1994 Hotel Shangri-la and Australian High Commission, Singapore
1994 Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide SA
1994 Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney NSW
1995 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin NT
1995 Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne VIC
1995 Hogarth Galleries, Sydney NSW
1995 Australian Heritage Art Award, Canberra ACT
1996 Australian Heritage Art Award, Canberra ACT
1996 Gallerie Australis, Adelaide SA
1996 The Meeting Place- touring Exhibition- Australia
1996 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin NT
1996 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne VIC
1997 Aboriginal Art Galerie Bahr, Speyer, Germany
1997 Goteborgs Konforening, Goteborg, Sweden
1997 Arnhem, The Netherlands
1997 Australian Heritage Art Award, Canberra ACT
1997 Alliance Fiancaise, Canberra ACT
1997 Hogarth Galleries, Sydney NSW
1997 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs NT
1998 Art Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
1998 Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide SA
1998 Spazio Pitti Arte Florence, Italy
1998 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne VIC
1998 Framed Gallery, Darwin NT
1998 Australian Heritage Art Award, Canberra ACT
1998 Museum of Art, Uni of Melbourne VIC
1998 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne VIC
1998 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs NT
1999 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs NT
1999 Hogarth Galleries, Sydney NSW
1999 Flinders Art Museum Flinders Uni, Adelaide SA
1999 Aboriginal Art Galerie Bahr, Speyer, Germany
2000 Solo – Niagara Galleries, Melbourne VIC
2000 Aboriginal Art Galerie Bahr, Speyer, Germany
2001 Galerie Knud Grothe, Charlottenlund Denmark
2002 Aboriginal Art Galerie Bahr, Speyer, Germany
2004 Minnie Pwerle and Mitjili Napurrula, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2005 Across Skin – Women Artists of the Western Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2006 Towards Black & White -Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2007 Mitjili Napurrula, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2008 Black & White: Inspired by Landscapes, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2009 A decade of Australia’s indigenous fine art 1999-2009, Salt Gallery, Queenscliff, VIC
2010 Desert Country, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
2011 In Black and White, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2020 Colours of Spring, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2021 Country in Mind, University of the Sunshine Coast, QLD