Untitled (Designs Associated with the Site of Lupulnga) 2007

This painting was made by Makinti Napanangka, who was born around 1930, and it’s called *Untitled (Designs Associated with the Site of Lupulnga)*. I can imagine Napanangka building up this painting in layers. Look at those vertical lines in pink and yellow ochre. I wonder what it was like for her to repeat these marks so many times. They kind of waver and shift, don't they? Each one feels slightly different. I imagine her hand moving, feeling the surface, responding to the way the paint drags or slides. You know, painting is a conversation, and I think Napanangka is in conversation with Agnes Martin, who also made paintings out of lines. But these lines feel different, more embodied. The ochre is gorgeous and really glows. You can feel the heat in it. It's such a physical thing, painting; she must have felt the presence of that place as she was making it. And now we can feel it too.