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Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe

Using ochres collected on her country in Western Australia’s East Kimberley, Shirley Purdie’s self-portrait is a kaleidoscope of traditional Gija stories and Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) passed down to her.

Shirley Purdie

Born: 1947, Gilbun – Mabel Downs Station, WA
Works: Warmun, WA

Shirley Hazzard part one

Recorded 1976

Shirley Hazzard part two

Recorded 1976

My life la Gilbun, 2020

Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe, 2018

Purchased 2019

Mum Shirl (Mrs Shirley Smith), 1988

Gift of the artist 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.

Shirley Hazzard, 1980 (printed 2011)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2011

Storied portrait

Emily Casey takes in Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait, Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe.

A Police Magistrate [Evelyn Pitfield Shirley Sturt], 1874

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018

Shirley

Shirley and the Kookaburras, 2012

Presenting… Shirley Purdie’s Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe

The National Portrait Gallery this week launches an online exhibition of Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe to coincide with Reconciliation Week.

Max Meldrum, 1951

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Shirley Greathead 2009

Storytelling

The fourth row of paintings interweave Ngarranggarni, memories, relationships and Country.

Ngarranggarni

The third row of paintings come from Ngarranggarni (Dreaming).

WHO ARE YOU

Featuring 130 works across painting, film, photography, screen printing, sculpture, and then some – it explores our inner worlds, outer selves, intimacy, isolation, celebrity and more.

Contributing artists

Find out more from each of the artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history.

Skin names

The first row of paintings depict stories relating to kinship, introducing significant women relatives.

Memories

The second row of paintings recall stories relating to specific sites, experiences and activities.

Equestrian self portrait, 2004

Purchased 2022

So Fine

This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.

William Robinson

Unique in the world, perhaps, is a bronze sculpture that fuses the age-old human portrait bronze tradition, and the later genre of the bronze pug figurine: that’d be William Robinson’s Self-portrait with pug.

2013-14 Acquisition Fund

This 1910 portrait of Elizabeth Sarah (Lillie) Roberts by Tom Roberts was brought into the Gallery's collection with the assistance of the Acquisition Fund in 2013.

2012-13 Acquisition Fund

The Circle of Friends Acquisition Fund for 2012 was dedicated to purchasing a portrait of David Malouf by Rick Amor.

2014-15 Acquisition Fund

Kristin Headlam's portrait of Chris Wallace-Crabbe was acquired with the support of the Circle of Friends in 2014.

Paul Capsis, 2004

Gift of the artist 2017

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.

2015-17 Acquisition Fund

From 2015 to 2017 the Acquisition Fund was focussed on Reg Richardson AM by Mitch Cairns, a finalist in the Archibald Prize 2014, and a great example of minimalist portraiture.

Catherine Livingstone, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AC 2018

Nicholas Paspaley Jnr, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Ross Adler AC 2018

Equation of a life – a portrait of Derek Denton

The National Portrait Gallery, has welcomed the newest portrait commission of Emeritus Professor Derek Denton AC by Evert Ploeg.

Fred Hilmer, 2018

Commissioned with funds provided by Dr Helen Nugent AO 2018

Desert Island Discs

I agonized over the choice of four songs to take with me to the ABC Studios for Alex Sloan’s Canberra 666 afternoon program, a sort of iteration of the old BBC Desert Island Discs.

The National Portrait Prizes

The National Portrait Gallery today announced finalists for the inaugural Darling Portrait Prize, a national new $75,000 prize for Australian portrait painting, and released selected images from the final prize pool for the popular National Photography Portrait Prize.

No shirt, no service

Bon Scott and Angus Young photographed by Rennie Ellis are part of a display celebrating summer and images of the shirtless male.

So Fine

The National Portrait Gallery is pleased to announce its winter exhibition is So Fine: Contemporary women artists make Australian history. It will open to the public from 29 June 2018.

The animating signature

Joanna Gilmore delights in the affecting drawings of Mathew Lynn.

So Fine

Ten women artists explore the possibilities of portraiture as a contemporary art form; and reinterpret and reimagine Australian history in the Portrait Gallery’s new exhibition So Fine: Contemporary women artists make Australian history.

Twin chics

Joanna Gilmour on the exuberant union of fashion pioneers Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson, captured in luminescent splendour by artist Carla Fletcher.

Illuminating history

Joanna Gilmour reflects on 25 years of collecting at the National Portrait Gallery.

The life of Bryant

Tenille Hands explores a portrait prize gifted to the National Screen and Sound Archive.

Earth to earth

Dr Sarah Engledow discusses the recent gift of works by David Campbell.

Portrait Donors

The personal and the historical

Where do we draw a line between the personal and the historical? Although she died in Melbourne in 1975, when I was not quite eleven years old, I have the vividest memories of my maternal grandmother Helen Borthwick.