Untitled 2005

Makinti Napanangka, who passed in 2011, made this painting with earth pigments, ochres, and acrylic paint. I love that even though we see lines here, the colours are never solid; they waver and shift. The pink against the ochre, so earthy, so raw. I can feel her standing there, brush in hand, maybe just a stick, really feeling the colours, feeling the moment. Napanangka's painting has a rhythm that reminds me of Agnes Martin, but looser, wilder. It’s like she's translating something ancient into something immediate. What was she thinking when she painted each line? Did she feel a connection to the landscape, to her ancestors? I think of all the women painters, across time and continents. They were laying down their marks, one by one, wrestling with paint and feeling, trying to make sense of the world. It’s like a long, ongoing conversation.