Nyapanyapa Yunupingu

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu
Born1945
Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia
Died20 October 2021 (aged 75–76)
Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia
OccupationContemporary artist
Known forPainting, contemporary Indigenous Australian art
SpouseDjiriny Mununggurr
ParentMungurrawuy Yunupingu (father)
RelativesGulumbu Yunupingu (sister) Galarrwuy Yunupingu (brother) Mandawuy Yunupingu (brother) Barrupu Yunupingu (sister) Dhopiya Yunupingu (sister) Djakangu Yunupingu (sister)
Awards2021 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. She was the daughter of Yolŋu artist and cultural leader Munggurrawuy Yunupingu (c.1905–1979), who was involved with the Yirrkala bark petitions.

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, and artist sisters Gulumbu Yunupingu, Barrupu Yunupingu, Nancy Gaymala Yunupingu, and Eunice Djerrkngu Yunupingu(c.1945–2022), among others.

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

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

Figurative 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.

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

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.

Collections

Significant exhibitions

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

Death

Yunupingu died on 20 October 2021 in Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia.