Acrylic on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.
Signed certificate of authenticity.
Artist: Francine Kulitja
Title: Kungarankalpa
Cat No: GJ
Size: 30 x 30 cm
Acrylic on linen. Stretched and ready to hang.
Story:
This painting depicts the Tjukurpa, the law and stories of Ancestors. Anangu (Central and Western Desert Aboriginal people) have responsibility for the protection and teaching of different Tjukurpa and there are stick protocols for the imparting of knowledge. The dotting technique has evolved with the need to adapt sacred expressions of Tjukurpa for public viewing and as a depiction of the desert landscape.
Kungkarangkalpa is the Tjukurpa of the Seven Sisters, about a group of women being pursued by a cunning man called Nyiru who attempts to lure them into marriage with him. He disguises himself in countless ways to trick the sisters and is sometimes is also invisible in paintings.
In their escape the sisters travelled through a vast amount of Australia. They stopped to camp, build shelter and hunt for food thus forming many features of the landscape and embedding the knowledge of survival in it. Eventually they fled into the sky where they became the constellation known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. Nyiru still follows them ceaselessly across the night sky as one of the bright stars in the constellation of Orion.
About:
Language: Pitjantjatjara
Date of birth: April 8th, 1980
Community: Mutitjulu : NT
Artwork media: Acrylic on Canvas, Acrylic on Wood, Tjanpi Grass
Artwork themes:
Kungkarangkalpa - Seven Sisters
Minyma Kutjara - The Two Women
Minyma Kaanka Tjuta - The Crow Women
Kapi Pukara - Pukara Waterhole
Kalaya Tjuta - The Emus
Ngankari Tjuta
Francine Kulitja is the eldest daughter of well known artist Rene Kulitja and granddaughter of renowned wood carvers and Maruku founders, the late Topsy Tjulyata and Walter Pukutiwara. She grew up in Kaltukatjara (Docker River) in the far south west corner of the Northern Territory. She also spends time in the Mutitjulu Community in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, where her family has always been strongly involved in traditional land management, tourism and the arts. Francine paints the Tjukurpa or Creation Stories she has inherited through her mother, her grandmother and her grandfather.