Marrapinti

The acrylic painting tradition established in the Papunya collective in the early 1970s was the genesis of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement in Australia. Many artists from the collective went on to forge prominent careers, including Doreen Reid Nakamarra, who exhibited in Moscow, London, and New York.

Doreen Reid Nakamarra created an extensive body of work focused on a narrative, passed on to her by her husband, that features the Marrapinti rock hole—a vital water source close to the Pollock Hills in Western Australia. Here a group of ancestral women travel east from the site. Stretches of horizontal lines reach across the canvas, evoking the desert plains, while a finely executed pattern of vertical strokes records the movement of the women as they traverse the sandy landscape.