BORN: c 1930
DIED: January 2011
REGION: WALUNGURRU (KINTORE)- NORTHERN TERRITORY
LANGUAGE GROUP: PINTUPI
View Makinti’s artwork here
Makinti Napanangka is a senior Pintupi woman, born around 1932, who resided within the Kintore Community before permanently moving to Alice Springs. She has ceased all painting activities due to her health. (update: sadly Makinti Napanangka died in Alice Springs on Sunday 9 January 2011 for cultural and respectful reasons, she should now always be referred to as; Kwementyaye Napanangka)
Makinti was born in the area of Karrkurritinytja (Lake Macdonald), She commenced painting for the Papunya Tula Artists in 1996 but had already painted with acrylics on canvas during the Kintore/Haasts Bluff project in 1993/1994.
Her art is characterised by a more spontaneous approach in illustrating the traditional iconography than that done by previous artists painting at Papunya.
Makinti’s paintings are often the stories of the Kungka Kutjarra (Two Women), ancestor figures, whose travels cover great distances from the Pitjantjajara country, then North East through to and beyond Haasts Bluff and Papunya. Such journeys include numerous ceremonial sites, ceremonial activities and food gathering.
Makinti is not concerned with neatness, or the painstaking “dot by dot’ approach of others.
Her bands of lines form into sweeping arcs, creating patterns that twist and bend.
Makinti’s images often comprise hairstring skirts (these skirts are woven by the women from human hair using a simple spindle made of two sticks) and belts worn by women in ceremonies, shown as sets of lines varying in hue and density, usually in bold yellows and oranges, alternating with white.
These works are cheerful and free flowing, intensified at times by the addition of a stray grey-blue line or a patch of crimson red or purple.
Makinti was highly regarded and collected in both Australia and the rest of the world.