The Purple House

11.10.2021 - 27.02.2022

The Purple House
A celebration of leading Pintupi artists and their enduring legacy

Alongside the major exhibition Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius in 2000, the Art Gallery of New South Wales worked with a number of organisations to realise the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. Leading Pintupi artists were the driving force behind the appeal, creating and donating large-scale collaborative canvases to raise significant funds leading to the establishment of the Purple House. This exhibition celebrates these artists and their enduring legacy.

The Purple House is a non-profit Aboriginal, community-controlled health service whose mission is ‘Making all our families well’. It began in response to the increasing number of Pintupi/Luritja people with chronic renal disease from the Western Desert region who were forced to leave their Country and families to access dialysis – a situation which was fracturing families and disrupting important knowledge transfer and community leadership. To keep families together and culture strong, the Purple House was conceived to provide dialysis care to patients on Country and within their remote communities.

In 2000, alongside the major exhibition Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, the Art Gallery of New South Wales worked with several organisations to realise the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. Leading Papunya Tula artists including Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Naata Nungurrayi, Bobby West Tjupurrula and Patrick Tjungurrayi were the driving force behind the appeal and more than $1 million was raised through an art auction held at the Gallery. This money led to the establishment of Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation, which is now called the Purple House.

Most of the funds raised at the auction came from four major collaborative works created by artists of Papunya Tula at Walungurru, NT, and Kiwirrkurra, WA, in 1999: two men’s and two women’s canvases. Three of these special paintings will be on display in The Purple House exhibition celebrating 21 years since the Purple House’s inception, where they will feature alongside major works and archival material drawn from the Gallery’s collection.