Nyapanyapa Yunupingu

{{Infobox person

| name = Nyapanyapa Yunupingu

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth year|1945}}

| birth_place = Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia

| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|10|20|1945|df=y}}

| death_place = Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia

| nationality =

| occupation = Contemporary artist

| known_for = Painting, contemporary Indigenous Australian art

| spouse = Djiriny Mununggurr

| parents = Mungurrawuy Yunupingu (father)

| relatives = Gulumbu Yunupingu (sister) Galarrwuy Yunupingu (brother) Mandawuy Yunupingu (brother) Barrupu Yunupingu (sister) Dhopiya Yunupingu (sister) Djakangu Yunupingu (sister)

| awards = 2021 Wynne Prize

}}

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu (1945 – 20 October 2021) was an Australian Yolngu painter and printmaker who lived and worked in the community at Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. Yunupingu created works of art that drastically diverge from the customs of the Yolngu people and made waves within the art world as a result. Due to this departure from tradition within her oeuvre, Yunupingu's work had varying receptions from within her community and the broader art world.

Early life

Yunupingu was a Yolŋu woman of the Gumatj clan and was born in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, in 1945.{{Cite web|title=Nyapanyapa Yunupingu |url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/education/exhibition-kits/yirrkala-drawings/nyapanyapa-yunupingu/|url-status=|access-date=2021-10-22|website=Art Gallery NSW}} She was the daughter of Yolŋu artist and cultural leader Munggurrawuy Yunupingu (c.1905–1979), who was involved with the Yirrkala bark petitions. Yunupingu's father taught her how to paint, allowing her to watch as he created various works.{{Cite book |title=Maḏayin: Waltjan̲ ga Waltjan̲buy Yolnuwu Miny'tji Yirrkalawuy = Eight decades of Aboriginal Australian bark painting from Yirrkala |date=2022 |publisher=Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia |isbn=978-1-63681-055-3 |editor-last=Wan̲ambi |editor-first=Wukun̲ |location=Charlottesville |editor-last2=McDonald |editor-first2=Kade |editor-last3=Skerritt |editor-first3=Henry F. |editor-last4=Blake |editor-first4=Andrew |editor-last5=University of Virginia}} In a conversation between Nyapanyapa Yunupingu and Will Stubbs, Yunupingu discussed how her father taught her to paint. He told her:

Daughter, see this, you will do this in the future.

Widowed, she was a wife of Djapu clan leader Djiriny Mununggurr, who died in 1977. She was the sister of brothers Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Mandawuy Yunupingu,{{Cite web|title=Nyapanyapa Yunupingu| website=unDISCLOSED: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial|first=Franchesca |last=Cubillo |url=https://digital.nga.gov.au/archive/exhibition/undisclosed/default.cfm%3fmnuid=artists&galid=34475&viewid=3.html|access-date=3 April 2022|publisher= National Gallery of Australia}} and artist sisters Gulumbu Yunupingu, Barrupu Yunupingu, Nancy Gaymala Yunupingu, and Eunice Djerrkngu Yunupingu{{cite web | title=Bark Ladies centres female Yolŋu artists | website=Art Guide Australia | date=13 December 2021 | url=https://artguide.com.au/bark-ladies-centres-female-yolnu-artists/ | access-date=3 April 2023}}({{circa}}1945–2022),{{cite web | last=Eccles | first=Jeremy | title=Mrs D Yunupingu 1945/2022 | website=Aboriginal Art Directory | date=1 July 2022 | url=https://aboriginalartdirectory.com/mrs-d-yunupingu-1945-2022/ | access-date=3 April 2023}}{{cite web | title=Ms. D. (Djerrkngu) Eunice Yunupingu (c.1945 - 2022) | website=Alcaston Gallery | url=https://www.alcastongallery.com.au/artist/read/1410-djerrkngu-yunupingu | access-date=3 April 2023}}{{cite web | title=Archibald Prize Archibald 2021 work: Me and my sisters by Eunice Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu | website=Art Gallery of NSW | url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2021/30311/ | access-date=3 April 2023}} among others.

Will Stubbs, Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre coordinator, said of Yunupingu and her art:

{{blockquote|Nyapanyapa's best form of communication is her art. This is because she is deaf, doesn’t speak English, is otherwise not that verbal, doesn't belong to a culture which believes it is necessary to talk at length about art unless in regard to its sacred character, doesn't paint sacred art, does not have a sense of herself as an individual as distinct from her kinship group, does not have a sense of herself as an important artist, and does not have an interest in talking about herself.}}

Growing up, Yunupingu worked on the mission with her sisters, herding dairy cattle and goats. She learned to paint by watching her father's painting process, although he did not officially pass on Miny'tji designs to her.

Art career

Yunupingu worked through the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre at Yirrkala. She developed a close relationship with Will Stubbs, the art coordinator at Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre at Yirrkala. He helped to push her creatively and encourage her art.

= Initial foray into painting =

Yunupingu began painting at The Yirrkala Printspace in 2007, beginning to work daily in the centre's outdoor courtyard. Her presence eventually attracted a group of artists to join her (dubbed the "Courtyard Ladies") which included Barrupu Yunupingu, Gulumbu Yunupingu, Nongirrna Marawili, Mulkun Wirrpanda, and Dhuwarrwarr Marika. Yunupingu was a part of a movement at Yirrkala towards secularism in their art with this group.Skerritt, Henry F. "The Country Speaks Through Her." Nongirrnga Marawili: From my Heart and Mind, edited by Cara Pinchbeck (Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2018) Yunupingu made screen prints at first, focusing on a figurative visual style.Sprague, Quentin. “White Lines: The Recent Work of Nyapanyapa Yunupingu.” Discipline 3 (Winter 2013) Yunupingu's early work dealt with personal stories and experiences, creating narratives that were not inspired by ancestral stories or dreamings but rather by her own life or her family history. Her work met with much success with her breakout painting Incident at Mutpi 1975, 2008, which featured a depiction of her being mauled by a buffalo. The Mulka Project created a film to go along with the piece and the painting and film won the 2008 Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award. Yunupingu was inspired to create this work by Will Stubbs, who presented her with a large bark before the creation of Incident at Mutpi 1975.

= ''Mayilimiriw'' ("meaningless") paintings =

In 2009, after a dream in which the buffalo that had mauled Yunupingu in 1975 appeared to her, she vowed to never again paint a depiction of the traumatic event. She began instead for a period to create paintings that were devoid of figurative images. Rather, they focused on layering coloured cross-hatching, creating an artistic style that centred around the nature of creation in the moment.{{Cite web|title=Know My Name|url=https://nga.gov.au/knowmyname/artists.cfm?artistirn=34475|access-date=2021-05-14|website=nga.gov.au}} Nyapanyapa's abstraction in her mayilimiriw paintings may not seem to mean anything, but she was a highly ceremonial person and this work can still be tied to ideas of country and ancestral tradition.

== White paintings ==

Yunupingu's "white paintings" take this concept of mayilimiriw further. Produced from 2009–2010, this series of paintings are solely focused on rhythmic mark-making, excluding colour from the narrative and instead creating works that were uninhibited in their spontaneous nature. Rather than being a premeditated image, Yunupingu's resulting work was fully dependent on the moment, the texture and stroke varying depending on material factors such as the brush and paint she was using.{{Cite web|title=MAGNT – the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu|url=https://www.magnt.net.au/nyapanyapa|access-date=2021-05-14|website=MAGNT|language=en}}

= Yunupingu's paintings =

Whilst most of her work falls into the category of mayilimiriw, Yunupingu has created newer works which do contain figurative references. Specifically, she has included Ganyu (stars), which refer to the story of the seven sisters. Nyapanyapa created "The Seven Sisters Collaboration" with her seven sisters in 2012. This collection contained prints from each sister, which when brought together in a constellation form "The Seven Sisters Collaboration." The prints all emphasize each sister's individual style, while also coming together under a common theme.Studd, Annie. "Balnhdurr-A Lasting Impression." Yirrkala: Buka-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, 2015.

= Process =

Yunupingu did not draft or plot her paintings, instead she relied on spontaneity and texture to create her works. Throughout her career as an artist she transitioned from creating razor-incised carvings of animals and spirits, to linocut prints, to bark paintings, and recently multimedia projections. Within her mayilimiriw paintings, Yunupingu created a structure to work from by adding in circles, lines, and shapes which she then surrounded with crosshatching, using red, pink, and white earth pigments.

= Notable career moments =

She had her first solo exhibition of bark paintings in 2008 at Sydney's Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery. Her work has been exhibited at the Biennale of Sydney in 2012 and 2016.{{Cite web|last=|first=|title=CooeeArt Since 1981|url=http://www.cooeeart.com.au/marketplace/artists/profile/NyapanyapaYunup/|access-date=2020-03-15|website=www.cooeeart.com.au}}
In 2008, Yunupingu won the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Prize at the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards with a piece that combined painting on eucalyptus bark with video to narrate a biographic event in which she was gored by a buffalo in 1975. Her paintings of being gored by a buffalo were the inspiration and backdrop for Nyapanyapa, a dance choreographed by Stephen Page for Bangarra Dance Theatre which toured the United States.{{Cite web|last=Cuthbertson|first=Debbie|date=2016-09-01|title=Indigenous artist Nyapanyapa Yunupingu's paintings inspire Bangarra Dance Theatre show|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/indigenous-artist-nyapanyapa-yunupingus-paintings-inspire-bangarra-dance-theatre-show-20160831-gr5m3g.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-15|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|language=en}}
In 2017, her abstract painting Lines was awarded the bark painting prize at the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. The work was subsequently acquired by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), in Darwin.{{Cite web|title=Spinifex and spears: here are the winning works of the 2017 Telstra NATSIAA Awards|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2017/08/10/spinifex-and-spears-here-are-winning-works-2017-telstra-natsiaa-awards|access-date=2020-03-27|website=NITV|language=en}}
She was selected as one of the featured artists for the 2020 Australia-wide Know My Name initiative of the National Gallery of Australia.{{Cite web|last=Starmer|first=Karyn|title=#KnowMyName: Recognising Australian Women in art|url=https://the-riotact.com/knowmyname-recognising-australian-women/360449|access-date=2020-03-15|website=The RiotACT|language=en}}
Starting on 23 May 2020 (later than scheduled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia) and running until 25 October 2020,{{cite web|title=the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu|url=https://www.magnt.net.au/nyapanyapa|access-date=30 May 2020|website=Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory}} a comprehensive solo exhibition of Yunupingu's work, the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu, was mounted at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. The exhibition featured more than 60 works, and was the first solo exhibition at MAGNT to feature work by an Aboriginal Australian artist.{{cite web|date=29 May 2020|title=Coronavirus restrictions are easing, and now this NT gallery is marking two milestones|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-30/exhibition-celebrates-arnhem-land-artist/12018280|access-date=30 May 2020|website=ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)}} A catalogue to accompany the exhibition was published.{{Citation|title=the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Yunupingu|date=25 April 2020|publication-date=2020|publisher=Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory|isbn=978-0-648-65422-3}}
In 2021, Yunupingu won the Wynne Prize for Garak – Night Sky, and the National Gallery of Australia purchased two of her works for inclusion in Part Two of the Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now exhibition.{{Cite web|last=Wild|first=Stephi|title=National Gallery Announces Three New Exhibitions By Women Artists|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/sydney/article/National-Gallery-Announces-Three-New-Exhibitions-By-Women-Artists-20210525|access-date=2021-10-21|website=BroadwayWorld.com|language=en}} Yunupingu died in Yirrkala on 20 October 2021.{{Cite news|date=2021-10-20|title=Australian art world in mourning after death of internationally renowned Yolngu artist N. Yunupingu|language=en-AU|work=ABC News|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-21/renowned-indigenous-artist-n-yunupingu-dies-nt/100554260|access-date=2021-10-21}}
In 2022, Yunupingu's work was displayed in the Madayin exhibition. This exhibition traveled to various cities at museums across the United States, continuing to 2025.

Reception of art

While Yunupingu's art has received many accolades and has seen success internationally, there is a certain level of puzzlement over her success within her own community. Her paintings diverge from tradition and do not depict the traditional stories and dreamings of her people, nor their Minytji designs, thus they are seen by those within the culture as having "no power" and as something that is communicating purely with the Western art market rather than the Yolngu people. Despite this hesitancy within her own community, Yunupingu was trailblazing a new approach to art within her culture, creating a style and approach that is strictly her own. The criticism Yunupingu has faced about her "meaningless" paintings is relative, and some understand how she is an artist who is always tying her art back to ideas of country.

Collections

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia
National Gallery of Australia{{Cite web|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/search.cfm?creirn=34475&order_select=1&view_select=4|title=Nyapanyapa Yunupingu|last=|first=|date=|website=artsearch.nga.gov.au|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-15}}
National Gallery of Victoria{{Cite web|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/20400/|title=Nyapanyapa Yunupingu {{!}} Artists {{!}} NGV|website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au|access-date=2020-03-15}}
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art{{Cite web|url=http://collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au/qag/imu.php?request=display&port=45000&id=2104&flag=ecatalogue&offset=13&count=default&view=details|title=Seven Sisters – Nyapanyapa|last=|first=|date=|website=collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-15}}
Charles Darwin University Collection{{Cite web |title=Ganyu {{!}} Stars |url=https://madayin.kluge-ruhe.org/experience/pieces/ganyu-stars-5/ |access-date=2024-04-27 |website=Kluge-Ruhe: Madayin |language=en-US}}
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tāmaki
Fondation Opale, Lens, Switzerland
Monash University Art Collection
Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

Significant exhibitions

2008: Once Upon A Time. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.{{Cite web|last=Martin-Chew|first=Louise|date=2019|title=Nyapanyapa Yunupingu|url=https://www.artistprofile.com.au/nyapanyapa-yunupingu/}}
2008: Nyapanyapa – Bark Paintings, Prints and Carvings. Nomad Art Productions, Darwin.{{Cite web|title=Nyapanyapa Yunupingu – Artworks {{!}} Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Australia|url=https://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artist/nyapanyapa-yunupingu|access-date=2021-05-14|website=www.roslynoxley9.com.au}}
2010: In Sydney Again. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
2011: Birrka'. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
2012: New Work, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
2012–13: UnDisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT; Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns QLD; Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, at the University of South Australia, Adelaide SA; and the Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, NSW.{{Cite web|url=https://nga.gov.au/exhibition/undisclosed/default.cfm?MNUID=6|title=unDISCLOSED – ABOUT|website=nga.gov.au|access-date=2020-04-22}}
2012: Crossing Cultures: The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art at the Hood Museum of Art. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.[https://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/explore/exhibitions/crossing-cultures Crossing Cultures: The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art at the Hood Museum of Art.]{{Cite book|last=Hood Museum of Art|title=Crossing cultures : the Owen and Wagner collection of contemporary aboriginal Australian art at the Hood Museum of Art|others=Gilchrist, Stephen,, Butler, Sally|year=2012|isbn=978-0-944722-44-2|location=Hanover, New Hampshire|oclc=785870480}}
2014: The World is Not a Foreign Land. Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC.[https://art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/exhibitions/the-world-is-not-a-foreign-land/ The World is Not a Foreign Land.]{{Cite web|url=https://art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/exhibitions/the-world-is-not-a-foreign-land/|title=The world is not a foreign land {{!}} Ian Potter Museum of Art|website=art-museum.unimelb.edu.au|language=en-AU|access-date=2020-03-26}}
2014: My Sister's Ceremony. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
2015: Lawarra Maypa. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
2015: Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
2016: Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
2016–2019: Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia. Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA; Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; and the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nevadaart.org/art/exhibitions/marking-the-infinite/|title=Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia|website=Nevada Museum of Art|language=en|access-date=2020-04-22}}{{Cite book|last=Skerritt, Henry F., 1979– éditeur intellectuel. Baum, Tina, auteur.|title=Marking the infinite : contemporary women artists from Aboriginal Australia : from the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection : Nonggirrnga Marawili, Wintjiya Napaltjarri, Yukultji Napangati, Angelina Pwerle, Carlene West, Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Lena Yarinkura, Gulumbu Yunupingu, Nyapanyapa Yunupingu |year=2016 |publisher=Nevada Museum of Art |isbn=978-3-7913-5591-7|oclc=980860631}}
2017: Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
2019: Ganyu. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
2020: 20/20: Shared Visions, Artbank, Sydney.
2020: the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Yunipingu. Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
2021: The Little Things. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
2022-2025: Maḏayin, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Charlottesville, United States.{{Cite web |date=2024-02-08 |title=About the Exhibition |url=https://madayin.kluge-ruhe.org/about-the-exhibition/ |access-date=2024-04-27 |website=Kluge-Ruhe: Madayin |language=en-US}}

Awards

2008: 3D Award, 25th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
2017: Bark Painting Award, 34th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
2021: Wynne Prize for Garak – night sky{{Cite web|last=Knowles|first=Rachael|date=2021-06-15|title=Story of the stars shines the brightest|url=https://nit.com.au/story-of-the-stars-shines-the-brightest/|access-date=2021-06-27|website=National Indigenous Times|language=en-US}}

Death

Yunupingu died on 20 October 2021 in Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia.{{Cite news|last=Westwood|first=Matthew|date=20 October 2021|title=Beloved Aboriginal artist N. Yunupingu passes away|work=The Australian|url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/beloved-aboriginal-artist-nyapanyapa-yunupingu-dies/news-story/f04aebcb6148c9d30d74e2fc5cd743e3|access-date=21 October 2021}}