Tjapartji Kanytjuri Bates

Tjapartji Kanytjuri Bates (1933–2015), also spelt Taparti, was an Australian Aboriginal artist based in Warakurna, Wanarn, and Warburton communities in the Gibson Desert. She was of the Ngaanyatjarra people. Known to be active from 1991, her work incorporates media of paint, canvas, glass and felt, and is particularly centred around interpretations of Tjukurrpa from her mother and father.

Bates was a prolific artist and her work has been shown in over 20 exhibitions, as well as the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia.

Early life Bates was born around 1933 in Yinunmaru, in the Gibson Desert. Her name was sometimes spelt Taparti, and she was also known as Kanytjuri. Her skin group was Karimarra.

Career In the early 1990s, she joined the Warburton Arts Project, which owns the "largest collection of Indigenous art in Australia that is held by Aboriginal people themselves", where she produced her first known work, Kungkarrangkalpa at Wanarn, in 1991.

In the late 1990s, Bates returned to Wanarn and continued to paint.

Themes and style Bates' art is focused on Tjukurrpa from her mother and father, particularly Kungarrangkalpa (Seven Sisters) and Warmarrla Tjukurrpa, and features distinctive styles of "unusual symmetries and circular motifs,"

Awards In 1998, Bates was awarded the Normandy Heritage Art Prize at the National Indigenous Heritage Art Awards, organised by the Australian Heritage Commission. Her winning work was a large slump glass panel. illustrates and interprets Seven Sisters songlines. the Marshall Collection, the Merenda Collection, the Lagerberg-Swift Collection, the Harriet and Richard England Collection, the Lepley Collection and the W. & V. McGeoch Collection.