Emily Kngwarreye (c.1910 -1996) painted up for Awelye

  



The final chapter of Emily’s career began with yet another radical departure. Dispensing with dots altogether Emily focused instead on gestural brush strokes derived from the lines painted on women’s breasts and shoulders for the ceremonial performance of her cycle of stories from the Yam Dreaming. Early on she had sometimes included these lines as a border for her works (see the print TVG15 a few pages back for an example of this). In 1997 a group of paintings from this period represented Australia at the Venice Bienalle.


  



 

           
 
The rhythmic brush strokes were abstracted from this ceremonial source and yet are also akin to it—the act of painting constituting a sort of performance unto itself a “meta-ceremonial event.” Like many Aboriginal artists Emily often sang the songs from her Yam Dreaming while at work, invoking ceremonial power. Her late work has often been compared to the work of Abstract Expressionist painters. The National Gallery of Australia at one time had an enormous Emily work hung diagonally across from Jackson Pollack’s “Blue Poles,” making a statement on how far Aboriginal art had come in a short time. 		 
 

 

8. (TVU 9)
Yam Dreaming, Body Paint
Emily Kngwarreye
Acrylic on Canvas
48 x 36 inches
122 x 92 cms
1995
 

 

9. (TVU 96)
Summer Season
Emily Kngwarreye
Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 48 inches
152 x 122 cms
1996
 

All paintings indicated with green dots For Sale are currently for sale. Prices and photos can be obtained by contacting us via e-mail, please be specific and mention the name and inventory code of the paintings. We particularly welcome phone calls in the U.S. at (415-871-5901). -- David Betz, Curator

  
 
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