Lucy Yukenbarri Napanangka, an Aboriginal artist from Balgo Hills in Western Australia, is considered to be one of the most innovative and daring of Balgo painters. Napanangka is among the Balgo artists for having invented a new style of dotting called ‘kinti kinti’ (close, close). These merged dots were created by her primary brushstroke ‘the splodge’, where she laid down fields of intense colour with a thick texture. Due to the immense heat, the paint would dry very quickly, building up a chromatic density that allowed no time for gentle graduations or blended hues. This results in a rich immediacy of contrast and resonance.

Throughout her career, Napanangka remained a leading figure among the Balgo artists with her irreplaceable knowledge of ancient places, ceremonies and narratives.

Marpa is the name of a big rockhole in the country of Lucy's grandparents. It is a large rockhole, surrounded by tali, or dunes, which dominate the landscape of the area. In the Tjukurrpa (Dreamtime), women were dancing all the way through this country, which is rich in bush food after the rainy season represented here by the dots.



Collections
ArtBank, Sydney
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Queensland
Campbelltown City Art Gallery
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
The Holmes a Court Collection
Laverty Collection
Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA
Parliament House Art Collection
Alice Springs Art Foundation, Araluen Centre
Ken Thompson and Pierre Marecaux Collection