Dorothy Robinson Napangardi (c. 1956–2013) was an influential Pintupi/Warlpiri artist who developed a distinctive abstract monochromatic style across the course of her career. Born at Mina Mina in the Tanami Desert, in her early years she and her extended family lived on Country and had little contact with white people until 1957 when a patrol officer pressured the family to move to the settlement of Yuendumu. Napangardi's family were unhappy in Yuendumu and returned to live in the desert. Napangardi eventually returned to Yuendumu, marrying a husband to whom she was promised as a child and going on to have four daughters prior to moving to Alice Springs. In 1987 she began painting surrounded by other Warlpiri artists including Margaret Lewis and Eunice Napangardi. In the early part of her career Napangardi's work featured bush fruits and flowers painted in bright colours. In 1997 she began to develop a unique, minimalistic style of painting which focused on representations of her Country, Mina Mina, tracking the topographical features as well as ancestral tracks through the landscape. In 2001 Napangardi was the winner of the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and in 2002 the Museum of Contemporary Art held a solo exhibition of her work Dancing Up Country: The Work of Dorothy Napangardi. Her work is held in galleries and museums worldwide including the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
