Lily Nungarrayi Yirringali Jurrah Hargraves

Lily Nungarrayi Yirringali Jurrah Hargraves is a Walpiri artist and senior Law woman from Lajamanu, Northern Territory, Australia. She was also known as Maggie Jurrah/Hargraves. She now prefers to be known as Jurrah but is best known as Lily Hargraves. Her Warlpiri name is Yirringali and Nungarrayi is her skin name.

Life and art

Nungarrayi is one of the old desert walkers born in the Tanami Desert near Jilla or Chilla Well in 1930. In the 1950s she moved to the settlement of Lajamanu. She began painting on canvas in 1986 after a Traditional Painting Course was held in Lajamanu.^[1] Nungarrayi's art is held in a number of major collections, and she has been widely exhibited both in Australia and overseas, including France and the USA. In 2009 Nungarrayi was a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.^[2] In her later years her style has changed slightly showing more freedom and use of colour. Nungarrayi still produces traditional paintings using bold colours on canvas and paint at the Warnayaka Art Gallery in Lajamanu.

As a senior Law woman, she is responsible for supervising women's song and dance ceremonies.^[1]

Collections

• AAMU - Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, The Netherlands
• Collection Roemer, Germany
• Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Australia
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
• United Nations Office, Darwin, Australia
• Peter Boehm Collection, Sydney NSW Australia

Bibliography

• Crumlin, R.,(ed.),1991, Aboriginal Art & Spirituality, Colins Dove, North Blackburn, Victoria
• Glowczewski, B. 1991, Yapa, Peintres Aborigenes de Balgo et Lajamanu
• Lebon Gallery, Paris, Johnson, V.,1994
• The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW., 2004
• "Journeylines" M.Stanislawska-Birnberg, J>B>Books Australia., 2000

External links

• Warnayaka Art Gallery

References

1. Margo Birnberg; Janusz B. Kreczmanski (2004). Aboriginal Artists Dictionary of Biographies; Western Desert, Central Desert and Kimberley Region. Marleston, S.A.: J.B. Publishing Australia. p. 289. ISBN 1876622474.
2. NT Government Department of Arts and Museums. "Previous Telstra NATSIAA".