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A 2004 reference work on Western Desert painters suggests Wintjiya was born circa 1923;<ref name="Birnberg2212">{{cite book|last=Birnberg|first=Margo|coauthors=Janusz Kreczmanski|title=Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region|publisher=J.B. Publishing|location=Marleston, South Australia|year=2004|pages=213–221–222|isbn=1-876622-47-4}}</ref> the Art Gallery of New South Wales suggests 1932;<ref name="WinTjuAGNSW"/> expert Vivien Johnson reports two possible years: 1932 or 1934.<ref name="Johnson307">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Vivien|title=Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists|publisher=IAD Press|location=Alice Springs, NT|year=2008|page=307|ISBN=9781864650907}}</ref> The ambiguity around the year of birth is in part because Indigenous Australians operate using a different conception of time, often estimating dates through comparisons with the occurrence of other events.<ref name="BirnbergIntro">{{cite book|last=Birnberg|first=Margo|coauthors=Janusz Kreczmanski|title=Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region|publisher=J.B. Publishing|pages=10–12|location=Marleston, South Australia|year=2004|isbn=1-876622-47-4}}</ref>
A 2004 reference work on Western Desert painters suggests Wintjiya was born circa 1923;<ref name="Birnberg2212">{{cite book|last=Birnberg|first=Margo|coauthors=Janusz Kreczmanski|title=Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region|publisher=J.B. Publishing|location=Marleston, South Australia|year=2004|pages=213–221–222|isbn=1-876622-47-4}}</ref> the Art Gallery of New South Wales suggests 1932;<ref name="WinTjuAGNSW"/> expert Vivien Johnson reports two possible years: 1932 or 1934.<ref name="Johnson307">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Vivien|title=Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists|publisher=IAD Press|location=Alice Springs, NT|year=2008|page=307|ISBN=9781864650907}}</ref> The ambiguity around the year of birth is in part because Indigenous Australians operate using a different conception of time, often estimating dates through comparisons with the occurrence of other events.<ref name="BirnbergIntro">{{cite book|last=Birnberg|first=Margo|coauthors=Janusz Kreczmanski|title=Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region|publisher=J.B. Publishing|pages=10–12|location=Marleston, South Australia|year=2004|isbn=1-876622-47-4}}</ref>


[[Napaljarri (skin name)|Napaljarri]] (in [[Warlpiri language|Warlpiri]]) or Napaltjarri (in Western Desert dialects) is a [[Australian Aboriginal kinship|skin name]], one of sixteen used to denote the subsections or subgroups in the [[kinship system]] of central Australian Indigenous people. These names define kinship relationships that influence preferred marriage partners and may be associated with particular totems. Although they may be used as terms of address, they are not surnames in the sense used by Europeans.<ref name="CLC">{{cite web|url=http://www.clc.org.au/People_Culture/kinship/kinship.html|title=Kinship and skin names|work=People and culture|publisher=Central Land Council|accessdate=23 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="de Brabander">{{cite book|last=De Brabander|first=Dallas|title=[[Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia]]|editor=David Horton|publisher=Aboriginal Studies Press for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies|location=Canberra|year=1994|volume=2|page=977|chapter=Sections|isbn=9780855752347}}</ref> Thus Wintjiya is the element of the artist's name that is specifically hers.
[[Napaljarri (skin name)|Napaljarri]] (in [[Warlpiri language|Warlpiri]]) or Napaltjarri (in Western Desert dialects) is a [[Australian Aboriginal kinship|skin name]], one of sixteen used to denote the subsections or subgroups in the [[kinship system]] of central Australian Indigenous people. These names define kinship relationships that influence preferred marriage partners and may be associated with particular totems. Although they may be used as terms of address, they are not surnames in the sense used by Europeans.<ref name="CLC">{{cite web|url=http://www.clc.org.au/People_Culture/kinship/kinship.html|title=Kinship and skin names|work=People and culture|publisher=Central Land Council|accessdate=23 October 2009}}</ref><ref name="de Brabander">{{cite book|last=De Brabander|first=Dallas|title=[[Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia]]|editor=David Horton|publisher=Aboriginal Studies Press for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies|location=Canberra|year=1994|volume=2|page=977|chapter=Sections|isbn=9780855752347}}</ref> Thus Wintjiya is the element of the artist's name that is specifically hers. She is sometimes referred to as Wintjia Napaltjarri No. 1;<ref name="Birnberg2212"/> there is another artist from the same region, Wintjiya Morgan Napaljarri (also called Wintjiya Reid Napaltjarri), who is known as Wintjiya No. 2.<ref name="Johnson310">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Vivien|title=Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists|publisher=IAD Press|location=Alice Springs, NT|year=2008|page=310|ISBN=9781864650907}}</ref>


Wintjiya came from the area north west of Walungurru (the [[Pintupi language|Pintupi-language]] name for [[Kintore, Northern Territory]]) and, like a number of other artists in the region, settled first in [[Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory|Haasts Bluff]] and then at [[Papunya, Northern Territory|Papunya]].<ref name="Birnberg2212"/> Johnson reports that she was born at Mulparingya, "a swamp and spring to the northeast of Kintore", west of [[Alice Springs, Northern Territory|Alice Springs]]. Her native language is Pintupi, and she speaks almost no English.<ref name="Strocchi08"/> She is the sister of artist [[Tjunkiya Napaltjarri]],<ref name="SunMoon">{{cite book|last=Perkins|first=Hetti|coauthors=Margie West|title=One Sun One Moon: Aboriginal Art in Australia|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|location=Sydney|year=2007|pages=187-188|ISBN=9780734763600}}</ref> and both are widows of Toba Tjakamarra, father of one of the prominent founders of the [[Papunya Tula]] art movement, [[Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula]].<ref name="Johnson307"/> Wintjiya and Toba had five children: sons Bundy (born 1953) and Lindsey (born 1961 and now deceased); and daughters Rubilee (born 1955), Claire (born 1958) and Eileen (born 1960).<ref name="Johnson307"/>
Wintjiya came from an area north-west<ref name="Birnberg2212"/> or north-east<ref name="Johnson307"/> of Walungurru (the [[Pintupi language|Pintupi-language]] name for [[Kintore, Northern Territory]]). Johnson reports that Wintjiya was born at Mulparingya, "a swamp and spring to the northeast of Kintore", west of [[Alice Springs, Northern Territory|Alice Springs]]. As was the case for a number of artists from the region, Wintjiya's family walked in to the [[Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory|Haasts Bluff]] settlement in the 1950s, moving to [[Papunya, Northern Territory|Papunya]] in the 1960s. In 1981, Kintore was established and the family moved there.<ref name="Birnberg2212"/><ref name="Johnson307"/> Her native language is Pintupi, and she speaks almost no English.<ref name="Strocchi08"/> She is the sister of artist [[Tjunkiya Napaltjarri]],<ref name="SunMoon">{{cite book|last=Perkins|first=Hetti|coauthors=Margie West|title=One Sun One Moon: Aboriginal Art in Australia|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|location=Sydney|year=2007|pages=187-188|ISBN=9780734763600}}</ref> and both are widows of Toba Tjakamarra, father of one of the prominent founders of the [[Papunya Tula]] art movement, [[Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula]].<ref name="Johnson307"/> Wintjiya and Toba had five children: sons Bundy (born 1953) and Lindsey (born 1961 and now deceased); and daughters Rubilee (born 1955), Claire (born 1958) and Eileen (born 1960). Superficially frail by 2008, she nevertheless had the stamina and agility to teach her granddaughter the skills of chasing and capturing [[goanna]]s.<ref name="Johnson307"/>


==Art==
==Art==
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===Career===
===Career===
Since the 1970s Wintjiya had created artefacts, such as ''[[Erythrina vespertilio|ininti]]'' seed necklaces, mats and baskets, using traditional artistic techniques including weaving of [[Triodia (plant genus)|spinifex]].<ref name="Ryan08">{{cite book|last=Ryan|first=Judith|title=Across the Desert: Aboriginal batik from Central Australia|year=2008|publisher=National Gallery of Victoria|location=Melbourne|isbn=9780724102990|page=164|chapter=Biographies and checklist}}</ref> Wintjiya first painted collaboratively, as one of a group of women who created murals on the Kintore Women's Centre walls in 1994. She then joined a painting camp with other women from Kintore and Haasts Bluff to produce "a series of very large collaborative canvases of the group's shared [[dreaming (spirituality)|Dreamings]]".<ref name="Johnson307"/> Twenty-five women were involved in planning the works, which included three canvases that were 3&nbsp;metres square, as well as two that were 3 by 1.5&nbsp;metres, and Tjunkiya and Wintjiya performed a ceremonial dance as part of the preparations.<ref name="Strocchi06"/> Wintjiya and her sister were determined to participate in the project despite [[cataract]]s interfering with their vision.<ref name="Finnane">{{cite journal|last=Finnane|first=Kieran|year=1997|title=From first canvas to national collections in three years|journal=Artlink Magazine|volume=17|issue=4|url=http://www.artlink.com.au/articles.cfm?id=2820}}</ref> As was the case for [[Makinti Napanangka]], an operation to remove cataracts resulted in a new brightness to Wintjiya's compositions.<ref name="Johnson307"/> Sources differ on when Wintjiya and her sister Tjunkiya had the cataracts removed: Johnson suggests 1999, but art centre coordinator Marina Strocchi, who worked closely with the women, states that it was 1994.<ref name="Strocchi08">{{cite book|last=Strocchi|first=Marina|editor=Judith Ryan|title=Across the Desert: Aboriginal batik from Central Australia|year=2008|publisher=National Gallery of Victoria|location=Melbourne|isbn=9780724102990|page=130-134|chapter=Before Painting: The Kintore Batiks}}</ref> In the early 2000s she and her sister painted at Kintore, but in 2008 they were working from their home: "the widows' camp ouside her 'son' Turkey Tolson's former residence".<ref name="Johnson307"/><ref name="Johnson305">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Vivien|title=Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists|publisher=IAD Press|location=Alice Springs, NT|year=2008|page=305|ISBN=9781864650907}}</ref>
Since the 1970s Wintjiya had created artefacts, such as ''[[Erythrina vespertilio|ininti]]'' seed necklaces, mats and baskets, using traditional artistic techniques including weaving of [[Triodia (plant genus)|spinifex]].<ref name="Ryan08">{{cite book|last=Ryan|first=Judith|title=Across the Desert: Aboriginal batik from Central Australia|year=2008|publisher=National Gallery of Victoria|location=Melbourne|isbn=9780724102990|page=164|chapter=Biographies and checklist}}</ref> When the women of Kintore, including sisters Wintjiya and Tjunkiya, started creating canvasses, their works bore little resemblence to those of their male peers (who had been painting for some years).<ref name="SunMoon"/> Wintjiya's first efforts were collaborative, as one of a group of women who created murals on the Kintore Women's Centre walls in 1992. She then joined a painting camp with other women from Kintore and Haasts Bluff to produce "a series of very large collaborative canvases of the group's shared [[dreaming (spirituality)|Dreamings]]".<ref name="Johnson307"/> Twenty-five women were involved in planning the works, which included three canvases that were 3&nbsp;metres square, as well as two that were 3 by 1.5&nbsp;metres, and Tjunkiya and Wintjiya performed a ceremonial dance as part of the preparations.<ref name="Strocchi06"/> Wintjiya and her sister were determined to participate in the project despite [[cataract]]s interfering with their vision.<ref name="Finnane">{{cite journal|last=Finnane|first=Kieran|year=1997|title=From first canvas to national collections in three years|journal=Artlink Magazine|volume=17|issue=4|url=http://www.artlink.com.au/articles.cfm?id=2820}}</ref> As was the case for [[Makinti Napanangka]], an operation to remove cataracts resulted in a new brightness to Wintjiya's compositions.<ref name="Johnson307"/> Sources differ on when Wintjiya and her sister Tjunkiya had the cataracts removed: Johnson suggests 1999, but art centre coordinator Marina Strocchi, who worked closely with the women, states that it was 1994.<ref name="Strocchi08">{{cite book|last=Strocchi|first=Marina|editor=Judith Ryan|title=Across the Desert: Aboriginal batik from Central Australia|year=2008|publisher=National Gallery of Victoria|location=Melbourne|isbn=9780724102990|page=130-134|chapter=Before Painting: The Kintore Batiks}}</ref> In the early 2000s she and her sister painted at Kintore, but in 2008 they were working from their home: "the widows' camp ouside her 'son' Turkey Tolson's former residence".<ref name="Johnson307"/><ref name="Johnson305">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Vivien|title=Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists|publisher=IAD Press|location=Alice Springs, NT|year=2008|page=305|ISBN=9781864650907}}</ref>


Tjunkiya and her sister Wintjiya did not confine their activities to painting canvases. In 2001 the National Gallery of Victoria purchased a collaborative [[batik]] work, created by the sisters in cooperation with several other artists, together with a work completed by Wintjiya alone.<ref name="NGV02">{{cite book|last=Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria|title=Annual Report 2001-2002|publisher=National Gallery of Victoria|location=Melbourne|year=2002|page=72|url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/11935/ngv_corp_annualreport_2001_02_3.pdf|accessdate=26 August 2010}}</ref> These works were the product of a batik workshop run for the women of Haasts Bluff by [[Government of the Northern Territory|Northern Territory Education Department]] staff Jill Squires and Therese Honan in the months following June 1994. The works, including several by Wintjiya, were not completed until 1995. Circular markings, used by Wintjiya in both these batiks and her subsequent paintings, represent the eggs of the flying ant (''waturnuma''), one of the main subjects of her art. She also portrays "tree-like organic motifs" and representations of hair-string skirts (''nyimparra'').<ref name="Strocchi08"/> The sisters also gained experience with [[drypoint]] etching, with 2004 works by Wintjiya – ''Watiyawanu'' and ''Nyimpara'' – held by the [[National Gallery of Australia]].<ref name="NGA1">{{cite web|url=http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=160799|title=Nyimpara 2004|last=Napaltjarri|first=Wintjiya|work=Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art|publisher=National Gallery of Australia|accessdate=26 August 2010}}</ref><ref name="NGA2">{{cite web|url=http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=160797|title=Watiyawanu 2004|last=Napaltjarri|first=Wintjiya|work=Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art|publisher=National Gallery of Australia|accessdate=26 August 2010}}</ref>
Tjunkiya and her sister Wintjiya did not confine their activities to painting canvases. In 2001 the National Gallery of Victoria purchased a collaborative [[batik]] work, created by the sisters in cooperation with several other artists, together with a work completed by Wintjiya alone.<ref name="NGV02">{{cite book|last=Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria|title=Annual Report 2001-2002|publisher=National Gallery of Victoria|location=Melbourne|year=2002|page=72|url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/11935/ngv_corp_annualreport_2001_02_3.pdf|accessdate=26 August 2010}}</ref> These works were the product of a batik workshop run for the women of Haasts Bluff by [[Government of the Northern Territory|Northern Territory Education Department]] staff Jill Squires and Therese Honan in the months following June 1994. The works, including several by Wintjiya, were not completed until 1995. Circular markings, used by Wintjiya in both these batiks and her subsequent paintings, represent the eggs of the flying ant (''waturnuma''), one of the main subjects of her art. She also portrays "tree-like organic motifs" and representations of hair-string skirts (''nyimparra'').<ref name="Strocchi08"/> The sisters also gained experience with [[drypoint]] etching, with 2004 works by Wintjiya – ''Watiyawanu'' and ''Nyimpara'' – held by the [[National Gallery of Australia]].<ref name="NGA1">{{cite web|url=http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=160799|title=Nyimpara 2004|last=Napaltjarri|first=Wintjiya|work=Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art|publisher=National Gallery of Australia|accessdate=26 August 2010}}</ref><ref name="NGA2">{{cite web|url=http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=160797|title=Watiyawanu 2004|last=Napaltjarri|first=Wintjiya|work=Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art|publisher=National Gallery of Australia|accessdate=26 August 2010}}</ref>


The work of Wintjiya was included in a survey of the history of Papunya Tula painting, hosted by [[Flinders University]] in the late 1990s. Reviewing the exhibition, Christine Nicholls remarked of Wintjiya's painting ''Watanuma'' that it was a germinal painting, with fine use of muted colour, and showed sensitivity to the relationships between objects and spaces represented in the work.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nicholls|first=Christine|year=1999|title=Twenty Five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting|journal=Artlink Magazine|volume=19|issue=4|url=http://www.artlink.com.au/articles.cfm?id=72}}</ref> Likewise, Marina Strocchi has noted the contrast between some of the subtle colours used in batik and Wintjiya's characteristic painting palette, which is "almost exclusively stark white with black or red".<ref name="Strocchi08"/> Her painting ''Rock holes west of Kintore'' was a finalist in the 2007 [[National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award]].<ref name="NATSIAA07">{{cite web|url=http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/museums/exhibitions/natsiaa/pdf/sales_list.pdf|title=Sales information|year=2007|work=National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards|publisher=Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory|accessdate=14 October 2009}}</ref> This was followed up by having another work, ''Country west of Kintore'', accepted as a finalist in 2008.<ref name="NATSIAA08">{{cite web|url=http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/museums/exhibitions/natsiaa/25/pdf/sales_list.pdf|title=Sales information|year=2008|work=25th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards|publisher=Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory|accessdate=14 October 2009}}</ref> Works by Wintjiya have appeared in many significant exhibitions including: ''Papunya Women'' group exhibition (Utopia Art Gallery, Sydney, 1996);<ref name="Win2AGNSW"/> ''Raiki Wara: Long Cloth from Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait'' ([[National Gallery of Victoria]] 1998–99); ''Twenty-five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting'' ([[Flinders University]] Art Museum, 1999); ''Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius'' ([[Art Gallery of New South Wales]], 2000) and ''Land Marks'' (National Gallery of Victoria, 2006). Her first solo exhibition was at Wolloongabba Art Gallery in Brisbane in 2005.<ref name="Ryan08"/>
The work of Wintjiya was included in a survey of the history of Papunya Tula painting, hosted by [[Flinders University]] in the late 1990s. Reviewing the exhibition, Christine Nicholls remarked of Wintjiya's painting ''Watanuma'' that it was a germinal painting, with fine use of muted colour, and showed sensitivity to the relationships between objects and spaces represented in the work.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nicholls|first=Christine|year=1999|title=Twenty Five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting|journal=Artlink Magazine|volume=19|issue=4|url=http://www.artlink.com.au/articles.cfm?id=72}}</ref> Likewise, Marina Strocchi has noted the contrast between some of the subtle colours used in batik and Wintjiya's characteristic painting palette, which is "almost exclusively stark white with black or red".<ref name="Strocchi08"/> Hetti Perkins and Margie West have suggested that in paintings by Kintore women artists such as Wintjiya and Tjunkiya, "the viscosity of the painting's surface seems to mimic the generous application of body paint in women's ceremonies".<ref name="SunMoon"/>


Wintjiya's painting ''Rock holes west of Kintore'' was a finalist in the 2007 [[National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award]].<ref name="NATSIAA07">{{cite web|url=http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/museums/exhibitions/natsiaa/pdf/sales_list.pdf|title=Sales information|year=2007|work=National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards|publisher=Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory|accessdate=14 October 2009}}</ref> This was followed up by having another work, ''Country west of Kintore'', accepted as a finalist in 2008.<ref name="NATSIAA08">{{cite web|url=http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/museums/exhibitions/natsiaa/25/pdf/sales_list.pdf|title=Sales information|year=2008|work=25th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards|publisher=Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory|accessdate=14 October 2009}}</ref> Works by Wintjiya have appeared in many significant exhibitions including: ''Papunya Women'' group exhibition (Utopia Art Gallery, Sydney, 1996);<ref name="Win2AGNSW"/> ''Raiki Wara: Long Cloth from Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait'' ([[National Gallery of Victoria]] 1998–99); ''Twenty-five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting'' ([[Flinders University]] Art Museum, 1999); ''Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius'' ([[Art Gallery of New South Wales]], 2000) and ''Land Marks'' (National Gallery of Victoria, 2006). Her first solo exhibition was at Wolloongabba Art Gallery in Brisbane in 2005.<ref name="Ryan08"/>
⚫
Works by Wintjiya are held in major private collections, such as Nangara (also known as the Ebes Collection).<ref name="Nangara">{{cite web|url=http://www.nangara.com/collection/artists.htm|title=The artists|publisher=Nangara: the Australian Aboriginal art exhibition|accessdate=2 July 2009}}</ref> Her work has been acquired by several major public art institutions, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales,<ref name="WinTjuAGNSW">{{cite web|url=http://collection.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/results.do?id=150113&db=object&keyword-0=tjunkiya&field-0=simpleSearchObject&view=detail&searchMode=simple|title=Wintjiya Napaltjarri and Tjunkiya Napaltjarri – Painting|year=1997|work=Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art > Paintings|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|accessdate=2 July 2009}}</ref><ref name="Win2AGNSW">{{cite web|url=http://collection.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/results.do?id=95237&db=object&keyword-0=NLETTER&sort=accession_no&browse=aboriginal%2Fpaintings%2Fbrowse&field-0=user_sym_39&bool-0=AND&field-1=user_sym_41&bool-1=AND&view=detail&dept=aboriginal%2Fpaintings&value-1=Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+Art%2FPaintings|title=Wintjiya Napaltjarri – Tingari Women at Watunuma|year=1997|work=Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art > Paintings|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|accessdate=2 July 2009}}</ref> the [[Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory]],<ref name="Johnson307"/> and the National Gallery of Victoria.<ref name="Birnberg2212"/> Works by both Wintjiya and her sister Tjunkiya are traded in the auction market, fetching prices of a few thousand dollars.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artcollector.net.au/auction.aspx?element=29&category=1&OptID=227|title=Auction results: Deutscher & Hackett – Important Aboriginal Art|date=25 March 2009|work=Australian Art Collector|accessdate=25 August 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artcollector.net.au/auction.aspx?element=29&category=1&OptID=176|title=Auction results: Mossgreen – Contemporary Aboriginal Art featuring The Ross Jones & The Violet Sheno Collections|date=8 April 2008|work=Australian Art Collector|accessdate=25 August 2010}}</ref>

⚫
Works by Wintjiya are held in major private collections, such as Nangara (also known as the Ebes Collection).<ref name="Nangara">{{cite web|url=http://www.nangara.com/collection/artists.htm|title=The artists|publisher=Nangara: the Australian Aboriginal art exhibition|accessdate=2 July 2009}}</ref> Her work has been acquired by several major public art institutions, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales,<ref name="WinTjuAGNSW">{{cite web|url=http://collection.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/results.do?id=150113&db=object&keyword-0=tjunkiya&field-0=simpleSearchObject&view=detail&searchMode=simple|title=Wintjiya Napaltjarri and Tjunkiya Napaltjarri – Painting|year=1997|work=Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art > Paintings|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|accessdate=2 July 2009}}</ref><ref name="Win2AGNSW">{{cite web|url=http://collection.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/results.do?id=95237&db=object&keyword-0=NLETTER&sort=accession_no&browse=aboriginal%2Fpaintings%2Fbrowse&field-0=user_sym_39&bool-0=AND&field-1=user_sym_41&bool-1=AND&view=detail&dept=aboriginal%2Fpaintings&value-1=Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+Art%2FPaintings|title=Wintjiya Napaltjarri – Tingari Women at Watunuma|year=1997|work=Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art > Paintings|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|accessdate=2 July 2009}}</ref> the [[Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory]],<ref name="Johnson307"/> and the National Gallery of Victoria.<ref name="Birnberg2212"/> Internationally, her work is held in the Aboriginal Art Museum at [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]] in the Netherlands.<ref name="Johnson307"/> Works by both Wintjiya and her sister Tjunkiya are traded in the auction market, fetching prices of a few thousand dollars.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artcollector.net.au/auction.aspx?element=29&category=1&OptID=227|title=Auction results: Deutscher & Hackett – Important Aboriginal Art|date=25 March 2009|work=Australian Art Collector|accessdate=25 August 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artcollector.net.au/auction.aspx?element=29&category=1&OptID=176|title=Auction results: Mossgreen – Contemporary Aboriginal Art featuring The Ross Jones & The Violet Sheno Collections|date=8 April 2008|work=Australian Art Collector|accessdate=25 August 2010}}</ref>


==Collections==
==Collections==

Revision as of 00:05, 5 September 2010

Wintjiya Napaltjarri
NationalityAustralian
Known forPainting
AwardsFinalist, National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award: 2007, 2008

Wintjiya Napaltjarri (born c. 1923 to 1934) (also spelt Wentjiya, Wintjia or Wentja), and also known as Wintjia Napaltjarri No. 1,[1] is a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She is the sister of artist Tjunkiya Napaltjarri; both were married to Toba Tjakamarra, with whom Wintjiya had five children.

Wintjiya's involvement in contemporary Indigenous Australian art commenced in 1994 at Haasts Bluff, when she participated in both a group painting project and in the creation of batik fabrics. She has also been a printmaker, using drypoint etching. Her paintings typically use an iconography that represents the eggs of the flying ant (waturnuma) and hair-string skirts (nyimparra). Her palette generally involves strong red or black against a white background.

A finalist in the 2007 and 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Wintjiya's work is held in several of Australia's public collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.

Life

Daytime landscape photo, showing a range of hills with the nearest rising to a rocky red peak, below a blue sky with a few white strings of cloud, and above the tops of eucalyptus trees.
Haasts Bluff, where Wintjiya's family first settled after she was born, and where she later painted

A 2004 reference work on Western Desert painters suggests Wintjiya was born circa 1923;[1] the Art Gallery of New South Wales suggests 1932;[2] expert Vivien Johnson reports two possible years: 1932 or 1934.[3] The ambiguity around the year of birth is in part because Indigenous Australians operate using a different conception of time, often estimating dates through comparisons with the occurrence of other events.[4]

Napaljarri (in Warlpiri) or Napaltjarri (in Western Desert dialects) is a skin name, one of sixteen used to denote the subsections or subgroups in the kinship system of central Australian Indigenous people. These names define kinship relationships that influence preferred marriage partners and may be associated with particular totems. Although they may be used as terms of address, they are not surnames in the sense used by Europeans.[5][6] Thus Wintjiya is the element of the artist's name that is specifically hers. She is sometimes referred to as Wintjia Napaltjarri No. 1;[1] there is another artist from the same region, Wintjiya Morgan Napaljarri (also called Wintjiya Reid Napaltjarri), who is known as Wintjiya No. 2.[7]

Wintjiya came from an area north-west[1] or north-east[3] of Walungurru (the Pintupi-language name for Kintore, Northern Territory). Johnson reports that Wintjiya was born at Mulparingya, "a swamp and spring to the northeast of Kintore", west of Alice Springs. As was the case for a number of artists from the region, Wintjiya's family walked in to the Haasts Bluff settlement in the 1950s, moving to Papunya in the 1960s. In 1981, Kintore was established and the family moved there.[1][3] Her native language is Pintupi, and she speaks almost no English.[8] She is the sister of artist Tjunkiya Napaltjarri,[9] and both are widows of Toba Tjakamarra, father of one of the prominent founders of the Papunya Tula art movement, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula.[3] Wintjiya and Toba had five children: sons Bundy (born 1953) and Lindsey (born 1961 and now deceased); and daughters Rubilee (born 1955), Claire (born 1958) and Eileen (born 1960). Superficially frail by 2008, she nevertheless had the stamina and agility to teach her granddaughter the skills of chasing and capturing goannas.[3]

Art

Background

A 2006 untitled work by Wintjiya, showing her characteristic palette (stark white with red or black) and iconography (symbols representing the eggs of the flying ant (waturnuma) and hair-string skirts (nyimparra).

Contemporary Indigenous art of the western desert began when Indigenous men at Papunya began painting in 1971, assisted by teacher Geoffrey Bardon.[10] Their work, which used acrylic paints to create designs representing body painting and ground sculptures, rapidly spread across Indigenous communities of central Australia, particularly following the commencement of a government-sanctioned art program in central Australia in 1983.[11] By the 1980s and 1990s, such work was being exhibited internationally.[12] The first artists, including all of the founders of the Papunya Tula artists' company, had been men, and there was resistance amongst the Pintupi men of central Australia to women painting.[13] However, there was also a desire amongst many of the women to participate, and in the 1990s many of them began to create paintings. In the western desert communities such as Kintore, Yuendumu, Balgo, and on the outstations, people were beginning to create art works expressly for exhibition and sale.[12]

Career

Since the 1970s Wintjiya had created artefacts, such as ininti seed necklaces, mats and baskets, using traditional artistic techniques including weaving of spinifex.[14] When the women of Kintore, including sisters Wintjiya and Tjunkiya, started creating canvasses, their works bore little resemblence to those of their male peers (who had been painting for some years).[9] Wintjiya's first efforts were collaborative, as one of a group of women who created murals on the Kintore Women's Centre walls in 1992. She then joined a painting camp with other women from Kintore and Haasts Bluff to produce "a series of very large collaborative canvases of the group's shared Dreamings".[3] Twenty-five women were involved in planning the works, which included three canvases that were 3 metres square, as well as two that were 3 by 1.5 metres, and Tjunkiya and Wintjiya performed a ceremonial dance as part of the preparations.[13] Wintjiya and her sister were determined to participate in the project despite cataracts interfering with their vision.[15] As was the case for Makinti Napanangka, an operation to remove cataracts resulted in a new brightness to Wintjiya's compositions.[3] Sources differ on when Wintjiya and her sister Tjunkiya had the cataracts removed: Johnson suggests 1999, but art centre coordinator Marina Strocchi, who worked closely with the women, states that it was 1994.[8] In the early 2000s she and her sister painted at Kintore, but in 2008 they were working from their home: "the widows' camp ouside her 'son' Turkey Tolson's former residence".[3][16]

Tjunkiya and her sister Wintjiya did not confine their activities to painting canvases. In 2001 the National Gallery of Victoria purchased a collaborative batik work, created by the sisters in cooperation with several other artists, together with a work completed by Wintjiya alone.[17] These works were the product of a batik workshop run for the women of Haasts Bluff by Northern Territory Education Department staff Jill Squires and Therese Honan in the months following June 1994. The works, including several by Wintjiya, were not completed until 1995. Circular markings, used by Wintjiya in both these batiks and her subsequent paintings, represent the eggs of the flying ant (waturnuma), one of the main subjects of her art. She also portrays "tree-like organic motifs" and representations of hair-string skirts (nyimparra).[8] The sisters also gained experience with drypoint etching, with 2004 works by Wintjiya – Watiyawanu and Nyimpara – held by the National Gallery of Australia.[18][19]

The work of Wintjiya was included in a survey of the history of Papunya Tula painting, hosted by Flinders University in the late 1990s. Reviewing the exhibition, Christine Nicholls remarked of Wintjiya's painting Watanuma that it was a germinal painting, with fine use of muted colour, and showed sensitivity to the relationships between objects and spaces represented in the work.[20] Likewise, Marina Strocchi has noted the contrast between some of the subtle colours used in batik and Wintjiya's characteristic painting palette, which is "almost exclusively stark white with black or red".[8] Hetti Perkins and Margie West have suggested that in paintings by Kintore women artists such as Wintjiya and Tjunkiya, "the viscosity of the painting's surface seems to mimic the generous application of body paint in women's ceremonies".[9]

Wintjiya's painting Rock holes west of Kintore was a finalist in the 2007 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.[21] This was followed up by having another work, Country west of Kintore, accepted as a finalist in 2008.[22] Works by Wintjiya have appeared in many significant exhibitions including: Papunya Women group exhibition (Utopia Art Gallery, Sydney, 1996);[23] Raiki Wara: Long Cloth from Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait (National Gallery of Victoria 1998–99); Twenty-five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting (Flinders University Art Museum, 1999); Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000) and Land Marks (National Gallery of Victoria, 2006). Her first solo exhibition was at Wolloongabba Art Gallery in Brisbane in 2005.[14]

Works by Wintjiya are held in major private collections, such as Nangara (also known as the Ebes Collection).[24] Her work has been acquired by several major public art institutions, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales,[2][23] the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory,[3] and the National Gallery of Victoria.[1] Internationally, her work is held in the Aboriginal Art Museum at Utrecht in the Netherlands.[3] Works by both Wintjiya and her sister Tjunkiya are traded in the auction market, fetching prices of a few thousand dollars.[25][26]

Collections

Awards

  • 2007 – finalist, 24th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award[21]
  • 2008 – finalist, 25th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Birnberg, Margo (2004). Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region. Marleston, South Australia: J.B. Publishing. pp. 213–221–222. ISBN 1-876622-47-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b "Wintjiya Napaltjarri and Tjunkiya Napaltjarri – Painting". Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art > Paintings. Art Gallery of New South Wales. 1997. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Johnson, Vivien (2008). Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists. Alice Springs, NT: IAD Press. p. 307. ISBN 9781864650907.
  4. ^ Birnberg, Margo (2004). Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region. Marleston, South Australia: J.B. Publishing. pp. 10–12. ISBN 1-876622-47-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Kinship and skin names". People and culture. Central Land Council. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
  6. ^ De Brabander, Dallas (1994). "Sections". In David Horton (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia. Vol. 2. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. p. 977. ISBN 9780855752347.
  7. ^ Johnson, Vivien (2008). Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists. Alice Springs, NT: IAD Press. p. 310. ISBN 9781864650907.
  8. ^ a b c d Strocchi, Marina (2008). "Before Painting: The Kintore Batiks". In Judith Ryan (ed.). Across the Desert: Aboriginal batik from Central Australia. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria. p. 130-134. ISBN 9780724102990.
  9. ^ a b c Perkins, Hetti (2007). One Sun One Moon: Aboriginal Art in Australia. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales. pp. 187–188. ISBN 9780734763600. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Bardon, Geoffrey (2007). Papunya – A place made after the story: The beginnings of the Western Desert painting movement. University of Melbourne: Miegunyah Press. ISBN 9780522854343. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Dussart, Francoise (2006). "Canvassing identities: reflecting on the acrylic art movement in an Australian Aboriginal settlement". Aboriginal History. 30: 156–168.
  12. ^ a b Morphy, Howard (1999). Aboriginal Art. London: Phaidon. pp. 261–316. ISBN 0714837520.
  13. ^ a b Strocchi, Marina (2006). "Minyma Tjukurrpa: Kintore / Haasts Bluff Canvas Project: Dancing women to famous painters". Artlink. 26 (4).
  14. ^ a b Ryan, Judith (2008). "Biographies and checklist". Across the Desert: Aboriginal batik from Central Australia. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria. p. 164. ISBN 9780724102990.
  15. ^ Finnane, Kieran (1997). "From first canvas to national collections in three years". Artlink Magazine. 17 (4).
  16. ^ Johnson, Vivien (2008). Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists. Alice Springs, NT: IAD Press. p. 305. ISBN 9781864650907.
  17. ^ Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria (2002). Annual Report 2001-2002 (PDF). Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria. p. 72. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  18. ^ a b Napaltjarri, Wintjiya. "Nyimpara 2004". Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art. National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  19. ^ Napaltjarri, Wintjiya. "Watiyawanu 2004". Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art. National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  20. ^ Nicholls, Christine (1999). "Twenty Five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting". Artlink Magazine. 19 (4).
  21. ^ a b "Sales information" (PDF). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory. 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2009.
  22. ^ a b "Sales information" (PDF). 25th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory. 2008. Retrieved 14 October 2009.
  23. ^ a b "Wintjiya Napaltjarri – Tingari Women at Watunuma". Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art > Paintings. Art Gallery of New South Wales. 1997. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  24. ^ "The artists". Nangara: the Australian Aboriginal art exhibition. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  25. ^ "Auction results: Deutscher & Hackett – Important Aboriginal Art". Australian Art Collector. 25 March 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
  26. ^ "Auction results: Mossgreen – Contemporary Aboriginal Art featuring The Ross Jones & The Violet Sheno Collections". Australian Art Collector. 8 April 2008. Retrieved 25 August 2010.

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