Solo Show – Doris Bush Nungarrayi
Exhibition dates: Wed 28 March to Sat 14 April 2012
View the artworks
Previous Exhibitions
Doris Bush Nungarrayi -
First Sydney solo exhibition
You are invited to attend the opening by
Tom Uren AO
on Saturday afternoon
31 MARCH 2012, 3-5 PM
The artist will be in attendance, travelling from Papunya to Sydney for the opening.
The Damien Minton Gallery is proud to continue its association with the Papunya Tjupi Arts Centre by hosting the first Sydney solo exhibition of Doris Bush Nungurrayi. Doris comes from the Pintupi-Luritja language group and was born around 1942 at Haasts Bluff.
This is a love story from Doris’ past. Doris talks of the times when she was young in the bush, swimming with her friends at Haasts Bluff, NT, where the young people would wander looking for water, ‘chasing’ the water until they found a water hole. They would swim together, the young men and women and make love by the waterhole. Eventually, Doris explains, the young people fall in love and marry. This is what happened to Doris , meeting her husband George Bush Tjangala, one of the Papunya Tula Artists original shareholders. They had three sons together but when George died in 1997 Doris became a ‘shadow of herself’. When the Papunya Tjupi Art Centre opened in 2007 she rejoined her family and regained her strength through painting. It is an honour to present this new suite of work which includes paintings about this non traditional story, Tjurrpinyi.
Australian Art Collector (Jan-Feb, 2012) list Doris Bush Nungarrayi as one of ‘fifty things collectors need to know, 2012′. In the article Tim Morrell considers Doris as a stand-out for her personal autobiographical paintings:
“[she is] the only artist at the community who paints a non-traditional story. The circles in these paints often represent waterholes. and the roundels extending from them are the designs women paint on their breasts”. Which he expands, “Doris Bush Nungarrayi’s paintings are rhythmic webs of distinctive smooth, curved lines, recalling the marks of women’s ceremonial body painting.”
Papunya Tjupi Arts Centre
In 1972 the male elders of the various language groups then resident at Papunya instigated the now renowned Papunya Tula Artists to sell and market their paintings on their behalf. In the early 1990’s Papunya Tula moved it’s operation to Kintore and Kwiirrkurra, west of Papunya. Warumpi Arts was established in Alice Springs by the Papunya Community Council in 1994. The closure of Warumpi Arts in 2004 by the Council left the majority of Papunya artists with no representation and at the mercy of private dealers.
In October 2005 the Papunya artists approached the highly regards and respected Professor Vivien Johnson to help them establish, for the first time, a ‘community-based art centre’ in Papunya. The project’s future was initially uncertain, but through the commitment of the artists and community it has evolved into a ‘fully fledged’ art centre.
The reputation of Papunya Tjupi, located 240km north west of Alice Springs, is steadily growing and its artists and achieving financial security through sales with the assistance of external funding.
Support for the new art centre was also received from the Papunya Community Council, government agencies and regional representative bodies. Desart (Association of Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Centres).