Australia’s greatest artist.
Photo by Tara EbesShare
Emily Kame Kngwarreye
1910 to 1996
Kngwarreye began painting on canvas in her late seventies after decades of ritual artistic activity and batik fabric painting. Unlike most desert painters at the time, Kngwarreye did not use stylized representations of animal tracks or concentric circles in her designs. Instead, she employed richly layered brushstrokes or dabs throughout her abstract compositions. Her free handling of paint using various implements, keen sense of color, and dynamic compositions earned her international fame.
Kngwarreye was also extremely prolific, executing an estimated three thousand paintings in an eight-year period. Her work received immediate attention from critics, collectors, and fellow artists, and she was represented posthumously in the 1997 Venice Biennale.
Artist Details
- NameEmily Kame Kngwarreye
- BirthAlhalkere, Australia, 1910
- DeathAlice Springs, Australia, 1996
- Phonetic SpellingEHM-ih-lee kuhm koom-WAH-ree
- NMWA Exhibitions
- Trove: The Collection in Depth, 2011
- Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women Painters, 2006
Works by Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Yam Story ’96
Emily Kame Kngwarreye painted expressive representations of the Dreaming, the English word used to describe the Australian Aboriginal cosmology, which includes narratives about ancestral spirits who created the universe. Like other contemporary painters, Kngwarreye developed an abstract visual language that alludes to these narratives. Many of her works reference the wild yam Dreaming of which she was a senior custodian…
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yam Story ’96, 1996; Acrylic on canvas, 47 7/8 x 36 x 1 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of the Collection of Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan; © Emily Kame Kngwarreye/Copyright Agency; Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York, 2023
Related Exhibitions
- Lands of Enchantment: Australian Aboriginal PaintingOct 9, 2009, to Jan 10, 2010Lands of Enchantment: Australian Aboriginal Painting examines the global impact of this vital art form and offers the opportunity to see twenty-six masterworks from a private New Haven, CT/Washington D.C. collection.View Exhibition
- Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women PaintersJun 30 to Sep 24, 2006This ground-breaking exhibition features intensely colorful canvases and extremely intricate paintings on bark by Aboriginal women painters from indigenous Australian communities, highlighting the work of 33 artists who have made important contributions to contemporary painting.View Exhibition
View Larger Version of Yam Story ’96
Yam Story ’96
Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Emily Kame Kngwarreye painted expressive representations of the Dreaming, the English word used to describe the Australian Aboriginal cosmology, which includes narratives about ancestral spirits who created the universe. Like other contemporary painters, Kngwarreye developed an abstract visual language that alludes to these narratives. Many of her works reference the wild yam Dreaming of which she was a senior custodian within her community’s kinship structure. The web of lines in this painting may represent paths trod by ancestors, natural or spiritual forces, or the twining vine of the wild yam plant.
In the 1970s, many Australian Aboriginal artists were inspired to make fabrics and paintings related to the Dreamings as part of the Land Rights’ Movement through which they sought to reclaim traditional homelands and sustain their culture. Kngwarreye and other women artists worked together in groups and became dynamic forces in the Aboriginal art community. Kngwarreye’s paintings are renowned for their moody, atmospheric appearance. She developed, and often combined, several abstract formats including layered dots, parallel or interlacing lines, and fan-shaped daubs in her favored palette of red, pink, and orange.
AGOD / EBEScontemporary has the largest collection of EMILY paintings (if you want to own one – contact us – prices range from under $100,000 to over $1m+++; sizes range from small to extra large (we have a range or Rovers +++; largest collection of Australian indigenous dot paintings, Aboriginal Art – in the world = all for sale.
November 16, 2020
Share