Skip to main content
Menu

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Dorothy Robinson Napangardi

2010
Greg Weight

inkjet print on cotton rag paper, edition A/P (image: 45.0 cm x 36.3 cm, sheet: 59.4 cm x 42.0 cm)

Dorothy Robinson Napangardi (c. 1956–2013) was an influential Pintupi/Warlpiri artist who developed a distinctive abstracted monochromatic style during her career. Born at Mina Mina in the Tanami Desert, in her early years she and her extended family lived on Country and had little contact with white people until 1957 when a patrol officer pressured the family to move to the settlement of Yuendumu. Napangardi eventually returned to Yuendumu where she had four daughters before moving to Alice Springs. In 1987 she began painting surrounded by other Warlpiri artists, making works featuring bush fruits and flowers in bright colours. She later developed a unique, minimalistic style of painting which focused on representations of her Country Mina Mina, tracking the topographical features as well as ancestral tracks through the landscape. In 2001 Napangardi was the winner of the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and in 2002 the Museum of Contemporary Art held a solo exhibition of her work Dancing Up Country: The Work of Dorothy Napangardi.

From 2006 to 2010, Greg Weight travelled extensively through Central Australia meeting and photographing contemporary Pintupi and Warlpiri artists. This photograph of Napangardi is one of the portraits included in his resulting book Artists of the Western Desert (2011).

Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2020. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Gregory Weight/Copyright Agency, 2024

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Greg Weight (age 64 in 2010)

Dorothy Robinson Napangardi (age 54 in 2010)

Subject professions

Visual arts and crafts

Donated by

Patrick Corrigan AM (130 portraits)

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency