Norah Nelson Napaljarri

Norah Nelson Napaljarri (born 26 October 1956) is a Warlpiri-speaking Aboriginal artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Norah Nelson began painting in 1986 and has exhibited her works both in Australia and other countries. Her paintings and pottery are held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Life alt=Daytime landscape photo, showing a range of hills with the nearest rising to a rocky red peak, below a blue sky with a few white strings of cloud, and above the tops of eucalyptus trees. Norah Nelson was born at Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, north-west of Alice Springs on 26 October 1956. She married artist Jakamarra Frank 'Bronson' Nelson, who was deceased by 1994. Thus 'Norah Nelson' is the element of the artist's name that is specifically hers.

Art

Background Contemporary Indigenous art of the western desert began when Indigenous men at Papunya began painting in 1971, assisted by teacher Geoffrey Bardon. Their work, which used acrylic paints to create designs representing body painting and ground sculptures, rapidly spread across Indigenous communities of central Australia, particularly following the commencement of a government-sanctioned art program in central Australia in 1983. By the 1980s and 1990s, such work was being exhibited internationally. The first artists, including all of the founders of the Papunya Tula artists' company, had been men, and there was resistance amongst the Pintupi men of central Australia to women painting. However, there was also a desire amongst many of the women to participate, and in the 1990s large numbers of them began to create paintings. In the western desert communities such as Kintore, Yuendumu, Balgo, and on the outstations, people were beginning to create art works expressly for exhibition and sale. Western Desert artists such as Norah will frequently paint particular 'dreamings', or stories, for which they have personal responsibility or rights, and in Norah's case these have included Karntjarra (Two Women), Ngaru (bush plum) Ngarlkirdi (witchetty grub) and Pangkurlangu (Giant) dreamings.

Galleries in both Australia and elsewhere have exhibited works by Norah, including Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in Melbourne, the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami in the United States, and the National Gallery of Victoria. Her works are held in several major Australian collections, including the private Holmes à Court collection, and the public collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Collections Holmes à Court collection National Gallery of Victoria Supreme Court of the Northern Territory