Minnie Pwerle

Australian artist (died 2006)

Minnie Pwerle (also Minnie Purla or Minnie Motorcar Apwerl; north east of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. It is part of a broader region known as the Sandover, containing about 20 Indigenous outstations and centred on the Sandover River. Minnie was one of the traditional owners of Utopia station recognised in the 1980 Indigenous land claim made over the property; Thus "Minnie" is the element of the artist's name that is specifically hers. Estimates of Minnie's birthdate vary widely. The National Gallery of Victoria estimates around 1915; The new McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art suggests around 1922; Elizabeth Fortescue's biographical essay in Art of Utopia offers a range between 1910 and 1920. The uncertainty arises because Indigenous Australians often estimate dates of birth by comparison with other events, especially for those born before contact with European Australians. Minnie was one of six children, and had three sisters: Molly, born around 1920, Emily, born around 1922, and Galya, born in the 1930s. Jack Weir, described by one source as a pastoral station owner, A relationship such as that between Minnie and Weir was illegal, and the pair were jailed; Weir died shortly after his release. and became prominent Indigenous artist Barbara Weir. Barbara Weir was one of the Stolen Generations. At about the age of nine, she was forcibly taken from her family, who believed she had then been killed. The family were reunited in the late 1960s, but Barbara did not form a close bond with Minnie. Barbara married Mervyn Torres, and as of 2000 had six children and thirteen grandchildren. Minnie went on to have six further children with her husband "Motorcar" Jim Ngala, Her grandchildren include Fred Torres, who founded private art gallery DACOU in 1993, and artist Teresa Purla (or Pwerle). Minnie began painting in late 1999 By the 2000s, she was reported as living at Alparra, the largest of Utopia's communities, or at Urultja (also Irrultja, again in the Sandover region). She was outlived by all her sisters except Maggie Pwerle, mother of artists Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre (or Pitjara). By 1981 there were 50 artists at Utopia creating batik works; 88 artists participated in a major design project supported by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association. When Minnie decided to take up painting in 2000 while she waited for her daughter Barbara to complete a canvas in an Adelaide workshop, the reception was immediately positive: she had her first solo exhibition that same year at Melbourne's Flinders Lane Gallery. Her painting Awelye Atnwengerrp 2 was exhibited in the 2005 competition. She was named by Australian Art Collector as one of Australia's 50 most collectible artists in 2004. There were many group and solo exhibitions of Minnie's work at private galleries between 2000 and 2006. These included exhibitions at Japinka Gallery in Western Australia in 2003 and 2005, Adelaide's Dacou Gallery in 2000 and 2002, Sydney's Gallery Savah between 2000 and 2002 as well as in 2006, and Melbourne's Flinders Lane Gallery in 2000, 2004 and 2006, the last of which was a joint exhibition conducted with her three sisters, all of whom are artists in their own right. Her most famous fellow artist was Emily Kngwarreye, whose painting Earth's Creation in 2007 sold for over $1 million, setting a record for the price paid for a painting by an Indigenous Australian artist. Unlike Minnie, Emily had been an active participant in the early batik movement at Utopia. Minnie (like Emily) was often placed under considerable pressure to produce works. In addition to being pressured to paint by others, there were media reports suggesting that some of the vast number of paintings traded under Minnie's name were not created by her at all.

Minnie's style was spontaneous, and typified by "bold" and "vibrant" colour executed with great freedom. Brisbane artist and gallerist Michael Eather has likened her work not only to that of Emily, but also to Australian abstract impressionist artist Tony Tuckson. Minnie's paintings include two main design themes. The first is free flowing and parallel lines in a pendulous outline, depicting the body painting designs used in women's ceremonies, or awelye. Together, the designs were characterised by one reviewer as "broad, luminescent flowing lines and circles".

Minnie's art was quickly added to major public collections such as the Art Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery. Her works later formed the basis of a series of designer rugs, and, together with paintings by her sisters, illustrated the cover of art critic Benjamin Genocchio's book, Dollar Dreaming. Described by art dealer Hank Ebes as the works of "a genius", Minnie's paintings were typically selling for $5,000 in 2005; the highest price fetched on the secondary market at that time was $43,000. One of a number of women such as Emily Kngwarreye who dominated central and western desert painting in the first decade of the 21st century, Minnie is considered to be one of Australia's best known Indigenous artists, whose work "the market couldn't get enough [of]".