Pansy Napangardi
c.1942 – 2022
Community: Papunya / Alice Springs, NT
Language: Luritja / Warlpiri
Art Centre: Papunya Tula Artists (early career); Independent
Pansy Napangardi was a pioneering Luritja-Warlpiri artist and one of the first professional Aboriginal women painters of the Central and Western Desert. Born around the end of World War II in the bush at Haasts Bluff, she spent her early life in a remote community where her father and grandfather—both Warlpiri men—came from Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs), and her mother was from Illpilli in the Ehrenberg Ranges.
PROFILE
Pansy Napangardi
c.1942 – 2022
Community: Papunya / Alice Springs, NT
Language: Luritja / Warlpiri
Art Centre: Papunya Tula Artists (early career); Independent
Pansy Napangardi was a pioneering Luritja-Warlpiri artist and one of the first professional Aboriginal women painters of the Central and Western Desert. Born around the end of World War II in the bush at Haasts Bluff, she spent her early life in a remote community where her father and grandfather—both Warlpiri men—came from Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs), and her mother was from Illpilli in the Ehrenberg Ranges.
Pansy never attended school but excelled in bush skills—riding donkeys, horses, and even keeping a camel named Lofty. Her family relocated by camel to Papunya in 1959, and as a teenager, she learned English while working in domestic roles for figures like patrol officer Jeremy Long.
Inspired by early Papunya painters such as Johnny Warangkula, Kaapa Mbitjana, and Old Mick Tjakamarra, Pansy began painting in the early 1970s—well before most women were permitted to paint or had access to materials. She asked her uncles to teach her her mother’s Dreaming stories, which she first sketched in the sand and on paper before translating into collage with ininti seeds, and eventually acrylic on canvas.
Her breakthrough came in 1989 when she won the National Aboriginal Art Award and held solo exhibitions at the Sydney Opera House and Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery in Melbourne. Pansy became the most prominent female artist working with Papunya Tula between the late 1980s and early 1990s, though she later returned to painting independently with the support of private galleries including Art Mob in Hobart.
Her work is notable for its vibrant use of colour and spontaneous, rhythmic dotting technique, often created by dipping a stick into pools of complementary paint. Themes in her work include Kunga Kutjarra (Two Women), the Seven Sisters, the Desert Raisin, and the Hailstone Dreaming—the latter a powerful story associated with Illpilli, where her grandfather's Country lies.
Pansy’s paintings give voice to a triumphal cultural legacy of survival, resilience, and transformation. She maintained a strong connection to tradition while fearlessly experimenting with style and colour. Her passing in 2022 due to COVID-19 marked the end of a remarkable and influential life in Aboriginal art.
ARTIST CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1989 – Solo Exhibition, Sydney Opera House, NSW
1989 – Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
1991 – Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2006 – Hailstone Dreamings, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2008 – Surf's Up in Alice, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2009 – Desert Colours, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2010 – Pansy's Panorama, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2011 – Pansy Personified, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2013 – Dealing in Dots, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1987 – 4th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, MAGNT, Darwin
1988 – The Inspired Dream, QAG, Brisbane (cover artwork)
1989 – Mythscapes, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1990 – l’Été Australien à Montpellier, Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France
1991 – Aboriginal Women’s Exhibition, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
1991 – Friendly Country, Friendly People, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1992 – Combined show with Eunice Napangardi, Brisbane
1993 – Aratjara: Art of the First Australians, Hayward Gallery (UK), Kunstammlung NRW (Germany), Louisiana Museum (Denmark)
1996 – United Nations Exhibition, New York, USA
1999 – Salon Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui, Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris
2000 – Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, AGNSW, Sydney
2004 – Mythology and Reality, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
2006 – Dreaming Their Way, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, USA
2007 – Papunya Painting – Out of the Desert, National Museum of Australia
2014 – Famous Ladies, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2015 – Top 20: Most Collected Artists, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2019 – The Last of the Luritja, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2020 – Framing the Landscape, D’Lan Contemporary, Sydney
COLLECTIONS
Artbank, Sydney
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery | GOMA, Brisbane
Australian National University Collection, Canberra
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, California, USA
Donald Kahn Collection, University of Miami, USA
Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
Musee La Grange, Switzerland
AWARDS
1987 – Finalist, 4th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
1989 – Winner, 6th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
1993 – Northern Territory Art Award
MARKET ANALYSIS
Pansy Napangardi’s market first emerged in the late 1980s, with her earliest auction record appearing in 1989—the same year she won the National Aboriginal Art Award. Despite her early prominence and institutional recognition, her secondary market has remained moderate, with prices peaking in the early 2000s. Her record remains Pililli, c.1995, which sold for $10,800 at Lawson~Menzies in 2005.
Out of 127 works offered publicly, approximately 80 have sold, achieving a clearance rate of 63% and an average price of $2,534. While her works are distinctive—particularly those painted between 1987 and 1995—the prevalence of low-value results and the lack of major solo institutional exhibitions has tempered long-term commercial growth.
Nevertheless, Pansy’s works hold strong cultural and historical value. As a foundational female painter of the Western Desert, her contribution is increasingly recognised within museum collections and scholarship. Well-documented early works and those associated with her Hailstone and Two WomenDreamings offer the best prospects for long-term collector interest.
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