Lot 31

The Artist
Warlayirti Artists, Western Australia, cat. no. 252/91 (accompanied by a copy of the certificate of authenticity)
Private collection
Sotheby's, Melbourne, Contemporary and Aboriginal Art, 18 June 1995, lot 302
The Thompson Marecaux Collection of Balgo Paintings
Sotheby's, Melbourne, Aboriginal Art, 20 July 2009, lot 44
The Le Pley Collection, Western Australia, acquired from the above in 2009

"This waterhole has been used by the artist's family for generations and she herself spent her early years around here. The women would go out to collect food and they would camp under the shady trees. There are places associated with important events from the Dreamtime and a rock formation believed to have been where the digging stick is shown."
As stated on the Warlayirti Artists certificate of authenticity 
© Ena Gimme Nungurrayi/Copyright Agency, 2023

Ena Gimme Nungurrayi was a leading exponent of the art movement established at Balgo. Born in Kaliyangku, her father's country, on the western edge of the Tanami Desert in the far north of Western Australia, Ena was an especially talented artist alongside her mother, Eubena Yupinya Nampitjin. While Ena's career as an artist was sadly brief, her resulting paintings demonstrate her unique visual language and the overall significance of the female Balgo painters emerging in the 1980s.

The Balgo settlement, a former mission station, brought together diverse tribal groups including the Kukatja, Walmajarri, Warlpiri, Pintupi, Ngardi and Tjaru people, as well as a mix of different languages, traditions and ceremonial practices. The Balgo landscape is one of flat plateaus, descending plains, and defined desert hills and ridges. Referred to by locals as Wirrimanu ('dirty wind'), it is adjoined by three deserts, the Tanami, the Great Sandy and the Gibson. Across these arid regions permanent water sources are spoken of with whispered reverence as 'living water'. Balgo is one of the most isolated communities in Australia, some 200 miles from the nearest town of Hall's Creek.

Painting began at Balgo in 1981, mostly by young men who joined an adult education centre. Later the older men became involved in painting, and made the transition to acrylic paint on canvas in 1984. While the early Balgo artworks were painted in earthy tones, the works of the 1990s began to incorporate vivid acrylic paints in pinks, greens, blues and yellows as well as using brushes instead of wooden dotting sticks. The Balgo women, such as Ena, also became involved in painting as a communal exercise and by 1987 the Warlayirti Artist Co-Operative had officially been formed to support this great diverse range of artists. The artists' diverse styles stemmed from the culturally diverse and highly mobile population of Balgo, due to its location placed between various groups, allowing for social and ceremonial exchanges with other communities.

Ena Gimme Nungurrayi began painting in 1989, immediately showing her mother's artistic influence. The circular motifs featured in her works centred upon two waterholes from Eubena's country. Ena's paintings are often inviting, rich, and with mixed strokes. In this painting, we see the traditionally earthy tones of early Balgo painting with the vivid blue of the waterhole encapsulating the importance of this water source to the community. It was often food and water sources that Ena captured in her paintings.

For an artist of such brief activity, Ena Gimme Nungurrayi's paintings convey her own highly original interpretation of central desert motifs. The current lot presents as one of the most significant exampes of Ena's work to come to auction.

Olivia Fuller
Head of Art