Nyapanyapa Yunupingu

Born: 1945

Death: 2021

Biography:

Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu was an Australian Yolngu painter and printmaker who lived and worked in the community at Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. She 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. She was taught to paint by her father, the cultural leader Muŋgurrawuy Yunupiŋu. She is of the Gumatj people of Yirrkala and is a sister of Galarrwuy ... Nyapanyapa is quite remarkable. She is perhaps the artist of the region most remote from the market she creates for. In this sense her art is really quite pure for it is without any consideration or desire to understand what happens beyond point of sale to her art centre. Through a building interest in her work these things may change. She was badly gored by a buffalo in the 1970s at Mutpi near Garrthalala which required her medical evacuation to Darwin which was more rare in those days. Although childless she has helped to raise many children and is almost always in the company of one of her sisters, usually Barrupu but sometimes Djakangu.