Elizabeth Marks Nakamarra

Kalipinypa

2021

Kalipinypa is an important place associated with water that is related to many ancestral narratives and their related ceremonies. In the Dreaming, a huge storm erupted in this area, causing lightning and water to rush across the land, filling rockholes and forming small creeks. The painting depicts these, as well as other features like sandhills.

Language Group: Pintupi
Date: Born 1959

Elizabeth Marks Nakamarra was born at Papunya in August 1959, and was raised by Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula as a result of her father passing away when she was young. She married Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri and moved with him to Kintore in the early 1980s. Elizabeth says that she learned to paint by watching Mick, and after his death in 1998 she began painting on a regular basis for Papunya Tula Artists. In 1999, she was appointed the first woman director of the of the company. The main site referred to in Elizabeth’s paintings is the Lightning and Rain Dreaming site of Kalipinypa, slightly north of Kintore.

Biographical information courtesy of Papunya Tula Artists.

ELIZABETH MARKS NAKAMARRA, Kalipinypa, 2021

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 24 × 21 5/8 in. (61 × 55 cm). Commissioned by Richard Klingler and Jane Slatter for Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu | Past and Present Together.

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