Mitjili Napurrula, My Dreaming, Acrylic On Canvas, 1996

ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Mitjili mainly paints the Dream of a tree, the Watiya Tjuta, a species used to make spears and boomerangs. This endemic species grows in Ulwalki which is located in the Gibson Desert, near Kintore.
This country is characterized by red sand dunes (sandhills), bushes and trees including the famous desert oaks. Mitjili's works are distinguished by a management of space focusing on the patterns of the leaves of these trees and by the way she treats the background of her paintings.
Unlike many Desert artists who use a classic pointillist background forming colored areas, Mitjili paints with large dots and flat tints, this gives Mitjili's works a surprisingly contemporary look.

A certificate of authenticity mentioning the history of the work is attached with this painting by Didier Zanette, collector and dealer specializing in Oceanic art recognized internationally since the 1990s. Indeed, this painting was made by the artist in the famous Ikuntji women's center, it was acquired by the Utrecht Museum in the Netherlands, then by Didier Zanette himself.

ABOUT MITJILI NAPURRURLA (1945-2019)
Mitjili Napurrula was born in Papunya around 1945. Her family played an important role for the aboriginal community of Papunya. Half-sister of the famous artist Turkey Tjupurrula Tolson, she is the daughter of Tjunkiya Napaltjarri, an artist also known for her participation in the Minyma Tjukurrpa Project in the mid-1990s and through which she became one of the most respected female painters in Kintore. Married to the painter Long Tom Tjapanangka who won the 16th Telstra Art Award in 1999, she moved with him to Haasts Bluff (Ikuntji) located 230 km west of Alice Springs in the 1980s.
It was in the early 1990s that she began painting. She depicts the Tree Dreaming (Watiya Tjuta) which concerns a particular species of tree from which the men of her family make weapons, associated with her father's country (Uwalki). Mitjili is one of the artists who marked the early 2000s with the international dimension that her work took. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Australia, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Singapore, and the United States. She particularly distinguished herself at the exhibition "Spirit Country: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art" held at the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco in 1999, as well as at the prestigious Adelaide Biennial in 2000, "Beyond the Pale". Mitjili Napurrurla died in 2019, she was a pioneer artist of contemporary Aboriginal painting and her works are today among the most collected Aboriginal works.

Main awards received by this artist: 1999.
The Alice Prize, National Contemporary Art Award, Alice Springs (Australia) 1998.
Finalist, Northern Territory Art Prize, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs (Australia) 1997.
Finalist, 14th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin (Australia) 1994.
Northern Territory Art Award, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs (Australia) 1993.
Australian Heritage Art Award, Canberra (Australia)

National Collections:
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (Australia)
​​​​​​​National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (Australia)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (Australia)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (Australia)
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia)
Artbank, Sydney (Australia)
Edith Cowan University Art Collection, Perth (Australia)
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide (Australia)
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin (Australia)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (Australia)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (Australia)
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs (Australia)