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"Bush
Yam"
80 cm x 69 cm
Acrylic on Canvas 1995
Estimate
$Aud15,000 + GST 10% for sales
in Australia
export price $Aud15,000 SOLD
Dreaming
Emily’s
later works used layer upon layer of coloured dots, dabs and lines of
minutely varying hues. Originally her paintings started with specific
subjects that depicted designs from body paintings, images or Dreaming
maps showing important sites. Due to the secret and sacred nature of the
subject matter she found herself falling foul of other elders in the
group. Now her paintings have a different vision.
Emily was
asked to explain what she paints and she said, "Whole
lot, that's the whole lot. Awelye (my Dreamings), Alatyeye (pencil yam),
Arkerrthe (mountain devil lizard), Ntange (grass seed), Tingu (a
Dreamtime pup), Ankerre (emu), Intekwe (a favourite food of emus, a
small plant), atnwerle (green bean), and Kame (yam seed). That's what I
paint; the whole lot big mob story."
Emily
Kame Kngwarreye
Emily
Kame Kngwarreye has been the greatest single sensation to emerge from the
entire ‘school’ of desert art. Her dominance of this art scene was almost
contained within the decade of the 90’s. She died at Alice Springs in 1996.
In an obituray published by the Sydney Morning Herald it was claimed,
Kngwarreye’s
work has been compared with that of Monet, Matisse and Renoir but it was
distinctly Australian, though different from most Aboriginal art, jumping
barriers between black and white perceptions of the landscape to attract
international attention.
As
is the case with most Aboriginal painters her works are a response to the land
of her birth, Alhalkere, north-east of Alice Springs. She paints the spiritual
forces which imbue the country with contours of the landscape, cycles of
seasons, the flow of flooding waters and the patterns of seeds and the shape
of plants. Emily’s major dreaming was the yam. Her name ‘Kame’ means
‘yam flower’. She was a ceremonial leader and very active in land rights
movement. She played a decisive role in the return of Utopia Station to her
people in 1979.
Born
cl910 at Soakage Bore,
Utopia Station, Emily was an Eastern Anmatyerre speaker. Her ‘art’ career
began in 1977 when the women of the Utopia area were taught to design and dye
batik prints on silks provided by white art advisors. These proved to be both
popular and productive and gave the community women an opportunity to earn
some money and to come together in a meaningful way on a regular basis.
Emily’s batiks were much sought after and when the group began painting with
acrylic paint on canvas in 1988-89 her success continued in that medium.
Her first canvas, ‘Emu Woman’ 1988-89, was reproduced on the cover of
‘The Summer Project’ catalogue for
the exhibition at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney in 1989. Following
this her work was shown in two solo exhibitions in Sydney during 1990 and she
was also featured in the Art Gallery of NSW Exhibition, “Abstraction”.
Throughout the 1990’s she continued to develop her personal vision of the
land and its meaning. She painted with a vibrancy and intensity which was
nurtured by her lifelong association with her totems (Yam, Yam Flower, Emu),
land and beliefs.
Her fresh, dynamic and distinctive approach to painting meant that demand was
high for her work and in the years prior to her death in September 1996, Emily
became the greatest phenomenon ever in the history of Australian art. Here was
an 80 years old lady from deep in the Australian outback re-writing the art
record books. In the process she created a stream of new styles (10 in 8
years) each of which appealed to her growing band of admirers. Dealers
clamoured for her work and in 1992 the Federal Government awarded her a
healthy financial arts scholarship so that she would continue to paint.
Amazing claims were made about her: “She is probably the highest paid woman
in the country”, was the way one commentator summed up her earning capacity.
Emily’s creativity has been matched by very few, black or white, male or
female, in the history of Australian art. Indeed she has made a major
contribution to what will be seen in hindsight as Australia’s “Golden
Age” of Aboriginal art. Together with artists such as Rover Thomas, Clifford
Possum, Turkey Tolson, Billy Stockman, Yirrawalla and David Malangi, Emily has
secured, in the 1980’s and ‘90’s, a place for Australia in the world
view of contemporary art.
She made a number of works on a monumental scale, and
one of these, the colourful ‘Alhalkere Suite’ from 1993 was
purchased by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra. The suite is comprised
of twenty two canvasses each measuring 90 x 120cms.
The largest of her single works is “Big Yam Dreaming” 1995, which
measures an enormous 291.1 x 801.8cms. This work, a gift of Donald and Janet
Holt of Delmore Downs, Northern Territory, is now part of the collection of
the National Gallery of Victoria. The Holts were instrumental in encouraging
Emily to paint on canvas from 1989 onwards. Another who played a
significant part in Emily’s painting career was Alice Springs gallery
proprietor, Michael Hollow. When she painted ‘in town’, Emily invariably
painted for Michael at his ‘Aboriginal Desert Art’ gallery in Todd Mall.
Some of her most accomplished works were produced there where the best of
materials, fresh paints and tender loving care were readily and always
available. At the time of Emily’s funeral Michael was at hand to make
arrangements and to provide comfort for her family during their sorrow.
Reviewing
the major retrospective exhibition which was mounted two years after her
death, John McDonald made an insightful claim. He wrote, ‘Surely Kngwarreye
should be recognised as a major contemporary artist, regardless of ethnicity
….’ This consideration is one which
applies now to many Aboriginal painters, especially those of the younger
generation. They would like to be known as ‘contemporary painters’ rather
than ‘Aboriginal painters’.
When
asked what her paintings were about Emily would usually reply, “Everything,
the whole lot”. By this she meant that the works encompassed notions about
body painting, yam dreaming, emu dreaming and her country. They were after
all, inseparable. When asked how long had she been painting she would reply,
‘all my life’. And by this she meant that for as long as she could
remember she had participated in body painting rituals with the women of her
extended family. Emily preferred the simple ‘bush’ life to life in Alice
Springs but was able to produce the highest quality paintings in either
situation.
Discussing
Emily’s paintings and career the Australian National Gallery Curator Wally
Caruana has written,
The
paintings are not the daubings of an 'untutored'
artist acting purely on intuition; the term has been applied often in the
press to hype up the phenomenon which is Kngwarreye. Intuitive no doubt these
works are; but it is an intuition founded on decades of making art for private
purposes, of drawing in the soft earth, of painting on people's bodies in
ritual or, in the late l970s, of painting on the bodies of the Utopia women as
they successfully presented their claims to their land in legal proceedings.
One
may deduce that Emily’s work was indeed about, ‘the whole lot’. The
success and attention that came to her through her painting gave Emily a
distinctive status and importance within her own community.
Her
works are now represented in major public and private collections throughout
Australia and in many such collections throughout the world.
©
Jinta Desert Art 2001
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