EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE - BODY PAINT

 EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE
BODY PAINT,  1994
41 x 51 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas
 
PROVENANCE
Utopia, NT
Mulga Bore Artists, NT (Rodney Gooch)Utopia Art, Sydney, NSW cat no. 5.894 MBAThe Collection of John Wregg and Judith Alexander, NSWCooee Art, NSW 
 
STORY
During a whirlwind painting career that lasted just eight years, octogenarian Emily Kame Kngwarreye became Aboriginal Australiaā€™s most successful living artist and carved an enduring presence in the history of Australian art.  Her finest paintings are entirely intuitive and were executed with rapid, confident motion. The strength she developed while working with camels and labouring during her earlier life was clearly evident as she painted. She worked as if possessed, drawing long meandering lines and bashing out fields of dots with powerful hands, displaying her ability to use the most unlikely overlays of colours to create deeply luminous works. In this small work, horizontal stripes sear the canvas as they map the body-painting used in Awelye ā€” womenā€™s public song ceremonies. All of Emily's work was about one story ā€” Alhalkere ā€” her country, her people, her Dreamings. Panels such as this are among her boldest works ā€” raw, gutsy and tough. They evoke the confidence and unique vision that characterised her short but stellar career as a contemporary Aboriginal artist.