“When I paint I feel happy, I don’t feel sick, I don’t feel any pain. I feel strong and healthy, like I am a young girl again. I used to paint one way. Black one for Tjukurrpa (dreaming), white one, yellow one. But I’m getting old now. I wanted to mix it up. I was watching the other women I sit with – Kawayi Nampitjinpa, Mary Anne Nampitjinpa and my sister Wintjiya Napaltjarri. They use all those different colours – purple, pink, red, blue, orange. I use those colours now. All different colours, mixing it up. I’m old now and want to paint a new way.”
Tjunkiya Napaltjarri
AUSTRALIAN. PINTUPI, c. 1930 - 2009
Tjunkiya was born at Rapalangya, north-west of the Kintore Community, c. 1930, and she is the third wife of Turkey Tolson’s father. She later moved to Haasts Bluff with her husband and then to the Papunya Community when it was established. She participated in the Kintore/Haasts Bluff joint project, which was the beginning of her career. In 1999 Tjunkiya contributed to the Kintore women’s painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. Tjunkiya passed away in Alice Springs after a brief illness in April 2009.
Tjunkiya Napaltjarri's striking paintings reveal forms as colour is scratched away from the surface, a method unique amongst Papunya Tula Artists, and shared only by Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula. Tjunkiya began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in the late 1990s. Until 2004, Tjunkiya painted with her sister Wintjiya Napaltjarri at the Papunya Tula Artists shed in Kintore but from 2004 until her death in 2009, she painted from her home: the widow's camp outside her "son" Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula's former residence. There have been a number of solo exhibitions of Tjunkiya's paintings and her work can be found in national and international collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia and the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris.
Collections
Museums & Art Gallery of the NT Supreme Court Collection
National Gallery of Victoria
Campbelltown City Art Gallery
Araluen Art Centre
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Artbank
National Gallery of Australia
Musee du Quai Branly, France