Doreen Reid Nakamarra's optical style is created by countless dots laid down in zigzagged rows
Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Pintupi/Ngaatjatjarra people, Australia c.1955–2009 / Untitled (Marrapinti) (detail) 2008 / Synthetic polymer paint on canvas / 213 x 275cm / Purchased 2009 with funds from the Bequest of Grace Davies and Nell Davies through the QAG Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Doreen Reid Nakamarra Estate / View full image
Untitled (Marrapinti) 2008 is a painting associated with a rock-hole site in Western Australia and the Tingari ancestors who created country and law as they travelled the Western Desert. Tingari women camped at this site during their travels towards the east and it is here that they made nose bones, known as marrapinti. After the ceremonies at Marrapinti, the women continued towards Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay).
The lines in Papunya Tula artist Doreen Reid Nakamarra’s (c.1955–2009) work depict the creek at the site and the surrounding sandhills. Dotted lines give the impression of waves of sand blowing across the landscape and of the optical illusions that shimmer in the desert heat haze, her innovative optical style is created by countless dots laid down in zigzagged rows.
Nakamarra’s early works were typical representations of women’s food-gathering stories but her compositional range changed throughout her career. Influenced by her husband, who also painted in a dichromatic (two-coloured) minimalist manner with mesmerising optical effects, by 2003 Nakamarra had developed a style that satisfied both her cultural interpretation of ancestral stories and contemporary minimalism.
Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Pintupi/Ngaatjatjarra people, Australia c.1955–2009 / Untitled (Marrapinti) 2008 / Synthetic polymer paint on canvas / 213 x 275cm / Purchased 2009 with funds from the Bequest of Grace Davies and Nell Davies through the QAG Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Doreen Reid Nakamarra Estate / View full image
On display in Australian Art Collection
Queensland Art Gallery
Galleries 10, 11, 12 & 13 (Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries)
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
Brisbane, Australia