Red Kangaroo Dreaming – Marlu Jukurrpa Yarnardilyi & Jurnti

Artist: KAREN BARNES NAPALJARRI

Cat#: PGWA1284

Size: 61x61cm

Medium: Painting

Acrylic on canvas
An old ancestral kangaroo named Warlawee made his camp at Jurnti and began thinking about having ceremony for the Japaljarri and Jungarrayi men who became custodians for this Dreaming. While women were not permitted to particip[ate in mens ceremony, the Napaljarri and Nungarrayi women also have custodial responsibility for this Dreaming.

Karen’s painting is an explosion of colour expressing her connectivity to the Marlu being a Napaljarri woman – and an extraordinary example of her evolution from the contemporary dotting style of her famous grandmother, Judy Watson Napangardi who also was a great colourist – into colour fields and partial abstraction of form. Without doubt, Karen is demonstration the emergence of a potentially great talent at this early stage in her career.