Yukultji Napangati Paintings

Yukultji Napangati was born around 1971 in the Gibson Desert at Marruwa, a waterhole near Wilkinkarra, Lake Mackay in Western Australia, Until 1984, Yulkultji lived a traditional nomadic lifestyle with no contact at all with European civilisation.

In 1984, Yulkultji, along with her tribal group, which included Walala, Thomas and Warlimpirringa Tjapaltjarri, walked out of the desert region west of Wilkinkarra. She and her family were confronted for the first time with non-indigenous civilisation when they arrived in the community of Kiwirrkurra near the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. They were hailed as being ‘the last of the nomads’, the last of nine Pintupi people who were forced to come into the western settlements. Conditions due to lack of food and water, and diminished living conditions in the desert after a prolonged drought and interruption by European settlement with the traditional owners’ custodial care of the land, all contributed to the movement of Pintupi people out of traditional desert homelands.

Yukultji now lives in Kiwirrkurra in Western Australia, about 170 kms west from Kintore community. She is married to Charlie Ward Nakamarra, also an established Papunya Tula artist. Yukultji started painting in 1996, and she often visits with her sister Yalti Napangardi to paint. Both Yukultji and Yalti are highly sought after artists, their works having been exhibited in Australia and overseas and rapidly being acquired by collectors.

Yukultji chose to paint her mother’s country, Marrapinti. She uses acrylic paint rather than natural ochres and first primes the canvas earth red to match the desert country in which she lives. The base colour is sometimes overlayed with a black paint layer, and the red oxide and black become a single integrated prime base for her work.

Collections

• Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Griffith University Art Museum
• Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge
• Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College,
• Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia
• Milwaukee Art Museum
• National Gallery of Australia
• National Gallery of Victoria
• Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
• Seattle Art Museum
• Toledo Museum of Art