Jean Baptiste Apuatimi was a significant Tiwi Island artist whose work is held at most major and several minor Australian galleries and the British Museum. Her works were first exhibited in 1991 in group shows. From 1997 until her death, Apuatimi worked full-time with the Tiwi Design Aboriginal Cooperative.
Early life
Jean Baptiste was born in 1940 at Pirlangimpi on Yermalner in the East Timor Sea. Her father's name for her was Pulukatu. As a child she moved with her family to Bathurst Island. She was educated as a "dormitory girl" at the Catholic Bathurst Island Mission. Her parents selected Declan Apuatimi, ten years her senior, as her husband and she was married to him at age 14 years.
Career
Baptiste credited her artist husband, renowned carver Declan Apuatimi, as inspiring and teaching her how to create artwork. Following Apuatimi's first solo show in 1987, Tiwi Islands artists gained national and international recognition. The creation of a market for their work strengthened the traditional aesthetic of Tiwi artworks, and Baptiste became a leading exponent of this style. Baptiste took up painting after her husband's 1985 death and participated with other Tiwi Island women artistsKitty Kantilla and Freda Warlapinni in the 1989 creation of the Jilamara Arts Centre at Milikapiti on Melville Island, which further strengthened the artistic community and reputation of the region. Baptiste's paintings were included in the Jilamara Arts Centre's first group exhibit, Ngingingawula Jilamara Kapi Purunguparri , which took place just three years after the Centre began. The exhibition was at the National Gallery of Victoria, which then acquired the entire show for its collection. In 2007, Baptiste was one of five major senior Indigenous artists whose work was a focus of the National Gallery of Australia's inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial. That exhibit, titled Culture Warriors, travelled to Washington, DC in 2009. Baptiste attended the opening, where Joyce N. Bogosian captured a striking photograph of her in front of one of her artworks, Yirrakamini.
Artistic style
Baptiste is renowned for bringing to the world the Tiwi Island style of jilamara—or what she called "body painting style". In particular, she adopted the long geometric designs that were painted on a widow's body before she is ceremonially washed.
