| Emily Kngwarreye |
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Information AboutEmily Kngwarreye |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT EMILY KNGWARREYE | |
| 1910 births | |
| kngwarreye, emily | |
| 1996 deaths | |
| australian artists | |
| australian aboriginal artists | |
| people from the northern territory | |
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BEGINNINGS Born in 1910, she did not take up Painting seriously until she was nearly 80. She lived in the Arimatyerre tribe at Alhalkere in the Utopia community, about 200 km north east of Alice Springs . For much of her later life she was mostly known for her Batik work along with the rest of this community. Acrylic Paintings were introduced to this community in by the Central Australia Aboriginal Media Association in 1988-89. An exhibition of some of the paintings of these artists' work organised by the CAAMA was held in called "A Summer Project", where Emily's work got immediate attention from Critic s. The attention she received coincided with the worldwide art boom that occurred at this time. Whereas the predominant Aboriginal style was based on the one developed with some assistance from art teacher Geoffrey Bardon at the Papunya community in 1971 of many similarly sized dots carefully lying next to each other in distinct patterns, Emily created her own original Style . This first style, in her paintings between 1989 and 1991, had many dots, sometimes lying on top of each other, of varying sizes and colours, as seen in ''Wild Potato Dreaming'' (1990) These original paintings of different styles quickly went for high prices at Auction , with a Turnover for the Utopia group of painters of more than $1 million in 1989-90. STYLES Emily went through many different individual Style s in her short career as a professional painter. In 1992, the dots began joining into lines with parallel horizontal and vertical Stripe s, representing Rivers and the Contour s of the Land , in many different colours. She began using larger Brush es than previously, her paintings now consisting of much larger dots than the finer, more intricate work which she did when she started. In 1993 she began painting patches of Colour and along with many dots which were like rings that were clear in the middle as seen in ''Alaqura Profusion'' (1993), made with a shaving brush that was called her 'dump dump' style which used very bright colours. The same style of rings of colour are also seen in ''My Mothers Country'' and ''Emu Country'' (1994). The next year was an even more aesthetic and contemporary style, ending her 'colourist' phase, she began painting with plain stripes that crossed the canvas. These were at first thick stripes which often represented the lines of Yam tracks as in ''Yam Dreaming'' (1994) and ''Bush Yam'' (1995); the strange growth patterns of the yam, a plant which was critical for survival in the desert, but very difficult to find. Later in 1995 her paintings start to resemble in some ways the American Abstract Expressionist paintings of Jackson Pollock with many thinner lines that criss-crossed the canvas but still on the same theme, such as in ''Yam Dreaming Awelye'' (1995) and also in black and white Yam Dreaming paintings. Several weeks before her death she painted many canvases over a 3 day period in 1996, using a very thick brush such as in ''Body Paint'' (1996). YAM DREAMING Yam tracks was one aspect which particularly featured in her works. The yam plant was an important source of Food for the aboriginal people of the desert. She painted many paintings on this theme, with the first thing she often did at the start of a painting was to put down the yam tracking lines. This plant was especially significant for her as her middle name Kame relates to the yam plant, as meaning the yellow Flower of this plant that grows above the ground. She described her paintings as having lots of meaning to do with all the aspects of the community's life including the yam plants in one of the few well known criticisms of her own work, she said her paintings mean: ''Whole lot, that's all, whole lot, awelye, arlatyeye, ankerrthe, ntange, dingo, ankerre, intekwe, anthwerle and kame. That's what I paint: whole lot.'' ("My Dreaming , pencil yam, mountain devil Lizard , Grass seed, Dingo , Emu , small plant emu food, green Bean and yam seed") SUCCESS The success and demand for Emily's paintings caused her many problems within the community as she tried to maintain her individual Identity . The myth of the woman in her 80s who had never been outside the central desert becoming a great painter was one reason for her popularity. She had in fact, been to Perth , Adelaide , Sydney and Canberra , though this was only after she had became famous. There was much pressure from the white community for her to paint in a certain way, when they believed that one of her styles was more successful than others. Many other inexperienced art dealers would go to her community to try to get a piece of the action, Emily once describing to a friend how she had "escaped from five or six carloads of 'wannabe' art dealers at Utopia". Her paintings were providing income for the whole community. She rarely spent any of the money she got from her works herself, or when she did, it was to buy gifts for friends and relatives. She was at some times supplying a Car a week to her community, in a society that did not believe in individual ownership, but the sharing of property with the group. Often she had to give up chances of retirement to please her kin and family, and continue to provide money. Eight paintings by Emily Kngwarreye in the Sotheby 's winter auction of 2000 put together were sold for $507,550, with ''Awelye'' (1989) selling for $156,500. REFERENCES
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