Karntakurlangu (Belonging to Women), 2004
Artist: Dorothy Napangardi
Region: Central Desert
Medium/Type: Painting
Size:
41 x 76 cm
(Artwork can be rotated)
Catalogue Number: 8602DN
Portfolio: Dorothy Napangardi (Collector's Works)
Status: SOLD
Painted in 2004, this painting is similar in style that her painting hanging in the MET, New York.
With its striking check-like design using ochre red and white on a black background, Dorothy portrays her country Mina Mina .This painting can be read like a map, through which the women move; across the terrain, around the soakages of Mina Mina and its crustations of salt; through the spinifex clumps and over the sandhills.
Belonging to women is the literal translation of the title Karntakurlangu (Karnta – means women kurlangu – means “belonging”).
During the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) ancestral women of the Napangardi and Napanangka sub-section groups (aunt / niece relationship, in which knowledge is passed from one to the other) gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks that had emerged from the ground from the desert oak trees (Allocasuarina decaisneana) which continue to grow today. They then proceed east, performing rituals of song and dance, to the place known as Jankinyi.
This work is featured on page 42 in the monograph: Honouring and Remembering the Art and Life of Dorothy Napangardi, 1987-2013

Extract from publication: include Karntakulangu Jurkurrpa, 2004 - Cat 8602DN (The Story of Mina Mina | page 42)

Dorothy Napangardi
Regions: Central Desert, Western Desert
One of the leading artists of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement, Napangardi’s work is highly sought after by both collectors and curators worldwide. Her paintings and prints have been widely exhibited and are in all national collections within Australia and in major collections worldwide including most recently the MET, New York. Napangardi had the honour of being the 2nd indigenous artist to be given a solo survey exhibition at the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Sydney that traced 11 years of her painting career in 1991.