QUEENIE MCKENZIE - IRAKI COUNTRY

 QUEENIE MCKENZIE
IRAKI COUNTRY,  1997
90 x 120 cm
Natural Earth Pigments on Canvas
 
PROVENANCE
Kimberley, WA
Warmun Arts Centretitled ā€�Iraki Countryā€¯ on reverse with Warmun Arts Centre Cat. No. QM1161Chapman Gallery, CanberraLawson~Menzies, Aboriginal Art, Sydney, 30/05/2006, Lot No. 102Private Collection, MelbourneLawson-Menzies, Aboriginal Art, Sydney, May 2006, lot 20Private collection, SydneyCaruana & Reid Fine Art, SydneyCooee Art, NSW 
 
STORY
Queenie McKenzie, was born on old Texas Downs on the Ord River in the rugged East Kimberley. She lived there all her life until the respected manager, with whom a close knit group of Aboriginal people ran the cattle station for many years, retired. The 'Texas Downs mob' then all moved to the Warmun Community at Turkey Creek, which was located on an adjacent property. Queenie was therefore focused on a locality from which she never moved, a landscape that she knew intimately: 'Every rock, every hill, every water, I know that place backwards and forwards, up and down, inside out. It's my country and I got names for every place.' It was this singularly close relationship with her country, that prompted Queenie to take up painting, but not until she had already led a full and energetic life.
 
EXHIBITED
Cooee: Come Here, March 2021, Cooee Art | Redfern