Silk scarf – Untitled by Katarra Butler Napaltjarri

Features:

• 100% silk
• Artist and story information card
• Beautifully presented in gift box
• Royalties paid to the artist/family on every sale

Artist: Katarra Butler Napaltjarri

Art Centre: Papunya Tula
Communities: Kintore, Kiwirrkurra and Tjukurla
Language: Pintubi

Katarra Butler Napaltjarri was born in the desert near the current location of Tjukurla community, circa 1946. She grew up in the bush and was living at a place called Muramuta, before being transported by truck to Papunya in 1966. She later returned to her traditional homelands following the establishment of Kintore, Kiwirrkura and Tjukurla communities during the early 1980s.

Katarra Butler’s untitled painting depicts designs associated with the site of Tjukurla in Western Australia. During ancestral times, a group of women gathered at Tjukurla to perform the ceremonial songs and dances associated with the area. While there, the women spun hair to make ceremonial nyimparra (hair-string skirts), before travelling towards Kintore. As they travelled, the women gathered large quantities of the edible fruit known as pura or pintalypa (bush tomato) from the Solanum chippendalei shrub. The women also collected mangata (quandong) from the small tree Santalum acuminatum, and kampurarrpa or bush raisins from the shrub Solanum centrale. The various bush foods foraged by the women are represented by the numerous small circles in this painting.

Katarra’s work is characterised by her striking use of colour and loose, fluid brush strokes. The artist’s bold use of fiery tones and sherbet pastels is tempered by the black underpainting in this work, her energetic linework evoking the rhythmic movement of bush foods foraged by many hands.

Provenance:

Manufactured by One of Twelve – an Australian company that showcases the work of emerging and established artists from the Asia Pacific region. We are dedicated to celebrating and contributing to the art sector of this region through the production of high quality, silk garments that depict collaborating artists work.