Lucy Loomoo Nungurrayi

Maluri

2015

The circles in this painting represent a rockhole called Mallarri, west of the community of Kiwikurra. In the Dreaming, a large group of ancestral women camped at the rockhole to perform the ceremonies connected to this place before continuing their journey further west. While traveling, they also gathered the edible fruit para (bush tomato) and mangata (quandong).

Language Groups: Pintupi and Wangkajunka
Dates: 1939–2020

Lucy Loomoo was born at Willarratja, near Puntujarrpa, and travelled from the desert to Balgo as a young, unmarried girl. Now a senior woman of Balgo and a representative of the far Western Desert area, Lucy Loomoo has painted for Papunya Tula since August 1999. Her daughter Joan Loomoo also painted for Papunya Tula. Lucy’s paintings focus on Women’s Tingari stories and also reflect the influence of the Kiwirrkurra painting community. Stories concerning Women’s Law and the journeys of ancestral women traveling east are common subject matter for Lucy, reflecting her own journey east towards Kiwirrkura as a young girl.

LUCY LOOMOO NUNGURRAYI, Maluri, 2015

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 24 × 215/8 in. (61 × 55 cm). Commissioned by Richard Klingler and Jane Slatter for Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu | Past and Present Together.

Are you related to this artist? Are you a scholar of artwork from the Papunya Tula movement? Please contact us at kluge-ruhe@virginia.edu if you would like to add something to this page or see something that is missing or incorrect.