Pansy Napangardi

Kungka Kutjarra (Two Women Dreaming)

1989

In this painting, Pansy depicts the story of Two Women, represented by repeated U shapes, who camped at multiple sites while they were chased across the desert by a lustful old man. This narrative connects women from the Central Desert with those of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands some 500 miles away.

I saw my uncle painting and I asked him, can you tell me my mother's Dreamings. I want to put them down. He started to tell me how: "You can put them like that, this is your mother's, this is your Dreaming, two women and one old man." I started, I was doing a painting. First I was painting but with glue and beans. After that I left glue and beans. I asked, "Where's my grandfather's country? They tell me, "Your grandfather's Dreaming at Hillbilly (Ilpili, Ehrenburg Range) and your mother's one is Bush Mulberry." So I paint my grandfather's, and my mothers Dreaming, that's all I am doing.

PANSY NAPANGARDI

Language Groups: Luritja and Warlpiri
Date: Born c. 1940

Pansy Napangardi and her family relocated to Papunya in the 1960s, where she witnessed the rise of the early painting movement. At Papunya, she would regularly observe the older artists working, such as Kaapa Tjampitjinpa and Johnny Warangkula. Because Papunya Tula Artists could not initially support women painters, Pansy painted independently until 1983. When finally accepted into the company, she became one of its leading painters. Unlike later women artists who adopted a more gestural style of painting, Pansy drew upon the established style of men painters at Papunya, while adding her own distinctive color and character. In 1989, Pansy was awarded first prize in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

PANSY NAPANGARDI, Kungka Kutjarra (Two Women Dreaming), 1989

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 66 1/8 × 35 1/2 in. (168 × 90.2 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997. 1989.7018.002.

Pansy Napangardi working at the Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), 2007.

Photo by Margo Smith.

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