Deutscher and Hackett

Renowned for her colourful and vibrant paintings, Emily Kngwarreye chronicled on canvas the ever-changing desert country of her homeland Alhalkere. Located at the western edge of Utopia, this triangular shaped country was where Emily was born and where she lived in the traditions of the eastern Anmatyerre, following a way of life that had continued unchanged from long before European presence. Her mark making recorded the seasonal variations, sometime subtle, often dramatic, of the harsh desert environment and the explosion of growth that occurred after rain. Referred to by Emily as the ‘green time’1, the desert would come to life, wildflowers carpeting the red earth and plants and grasses flourishing, supplying the women with seeds, tubers and fruit.

Through her use of pattern and colour, Kngwarreye had seemingly endless variations to draw upon in the depiction of her country. Her paintings would often dissolve into fields of layered colour achieved through a build-up of dots upon dots, as featured in Untitled (Awelye), 1993. Here, Kngwarreye bears witness though her painting to that abundance that covers the earth after rain and provides a basis for understanding the reverence of the woman's ceremonial activities known as ‘Awelye’. As Stephen Gilchrist notes, ‘Many of Kngwarreye’s works reveal densely layered fields of dots within chords of colour harmonies. Layering is also an important conceptual part of Kngwarreye’s cultural practice. What can be seen is only half the world; the ancestral power beneath the ground gives meaning to what is above. It is the surfacing of these unseen forces, latent in the ground, moving through the body and onto the canvas, that gives the work its cultural signification.’2


1. Isaacs, J., ‘Amatyerre Woman’ in Isaacs, et al., Emily Kame Kngwarreye Paintings, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1998, p. 13
2. Gilchrist, S., ‘I am Kam’, in Cole, K. et al., Emily Kam Kngwarreye, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2023, p. 169
 
CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE