Born c1937
Title - My Country
Size 180cm x 127cm
Acrylic on linen
Offered with this work are a Certificate of Authenticity and 44 works in progress photos
SOLD
Linda is a wonderful colourist, and the work on offer is well balanced and extremely attractive. This piece is sizeable, well executed and shows the immense talent of the artist and the reason why her paintings are sought after.
In her most recent work, Linda returns to more traditional themes concerning the travels of the Tingari and Emu men, and images of her country around Lake MacKay where the Pintupi used to camp and gather for ceremonies.
Linda Syddick is a Pintupi woman who was born at Lake MacKay in the Gibson Desert, WA, in 1937. Linda was raised in the traditional nomadic fashion until the age of eight or nine, when her family walked out of the desert and decided to settle at the Lutheran Mission at Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory.
Linda's paintings are inspired by both her traditional nomadic life in the desert, and the Dreamings of her father and stepfather. Linda was taught the art of painting by her two Uncles Uta Uta Tjangala and Nosepeg Tjupurrula.
Linda paints country mostly around Lake MacKay, which has been central to the cultural and spiritual life of the Pintupi people for thousands of years. People used to camp around its shores during their seasonal journeys and gather there for ceremonies. Lake MacKay was where Linda was born and travelled for most of her early childhood. It is a large dry salt lake that straddles the Western Australia-Northern Territory border, north-west of Kintore. Occasionally it fills with water and becomes blue, 'like sea water'. When this occurs, birds and animals flock to the area.
Linda incorporates many perspectives and stories into a single painting. The land and country are always portrayed in an aerial perspective, the way of traditional Pintupi sand paintings, but the figures are painted straight on, as they would appear if painted on a cave wall. The spirits that Linda paints are very important and are based on the spirits that are depicted in the rock art at Tjindara, a place deep into WA from Lake MacKay that is often visited by Pintupi people. These paintings are reputed to be more than fifteen thousand years old.
Linda won the Northern Territory Art Award and was runner-up in the Heritage Art Award during 1995. She was also awarded the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander two year Fellowship in 1996; and has been a four-time finalist in the Blake Prize. In 2000, she was the runner up in the 5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Canberra, ACT. In August 2006, Linda Syddick Napaltjarri was selected as the Winner of the Painting Award at the 23rd Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Northern Territory after having been a finalist on no less than 8 occasions.
