Pink

The colour pink has been widely used by Aboriginal artists since the mid 1980s, when new materials were eagerly embraced by the current wave of women artists. The big shift that occurred in Central Australia at that time saw women artists emerge as artists in their own right, after spending the previous decade assisting the male artists in their families. Painters at Haasts Bluff and Utopia started to reveal the Women’s stories and chose a colour palette that suited their story. These artists chose a rich palette of colour and included strong colour contrast in their work. Emily Kngwarreye and Minnie Pwerle prominently used pink amongst a rich assortment of colours. This colour sensibility later spread to Yuendumu and to the Pitjantjatjara lands of the Western Desert. Lorna Fencer Napurrula from Lajamanu used pink in some of her radical combinations that she selected for high colour impact.

In the 1990s Kimberley artists like Queenie McKenzie mixed pink ochre using a soft red and blending it with white clay. Previously Walmajarri desert artist Jimmy Pike had used high intensity colours including pink to great effect, showing a preference for drawings made with texta colour, that created a fluorescent effect. Later Kimberley artists at Wangkatjungka community and Fitzroy Crossing used pink in their large map-like images of their desert homelands. Pink is a colour that we might associate with desert sunsets and as a complementary colour to the orange-red colours found in the iron oxide rocks. Today it is found across many contemporary Indigenous artworks.

This expansion in the use of red hues increased from the 1980s onwards. Many artists found that the colours of the desert, with its heat and light were well presented using the range of red colours available.

View paintings from Aboriginal Artists:

• Alison Munti Riley
• Biddee Baadjo
• Michelle Cooper