Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910-1996) was an Aboriginal artist recognized as one of the most important and consequential artists in Australian history.
Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910-1996) was an Aboriginal artist recognized as one of the most important and consequential artists in Australian history.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting indigenous women from around the globe.
Today we’re talking about a world-famous Aboriginal artist from a small desert community in central Australia. Though her career didn’t begin until she was in her late 70s and lasted just eight years, she quickly rose to international stardom. She is now recognized as one of the most important and consequential artists in Australian history and a giant of 20th century art. Please welcome Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
Emily Kame Kngwarreye was born around 1910 in Alkahare, a community on the edge of the Utopia pastoral station in Australia’s Northern Territory. Utopia is an Aboriginal Australian homeland area that covers about 1,400 square miles and includes 20 small Aboriginal communities, including Alkahare. It was created in 1978 after the land was successfully claimed by Aboriginal Australians during the early years of the Aboriginal land rights movement.
Emily lived almost two-thirds of her life with only limited contact with the outside world. She was the youngest of three children born into a traditional Aboriginal family. Despite marrying twice, she had no children of her own. But Emily raised two of her nieces, both of whom became famous artists in their own right.,
From a young age, Emily was trained to serve as a traditional Aboriginal ceremonial artist, learning the stories and ceremonies that combine creation myths, geographical information, and gastronomic components. This education included learning the intricate ochre designs and symbols painted on the bodies of women taking part in sacred women’s ceremonies.
Emily held a unique role in her community even before she became a famous artist. Her occupation as a stock hand at local cattle stations, a job almost exclusively performed by men at the time, and her strong personality made her a leader in her community and eventually a tribal elder. She was appointed a senior custodian of her community’s cultural sites and was in charge of some of the most important women’s ceremonies.
In 1977, Aboriginal art outside of ceremonial painting was introduced in Utopia for the first time thanks to a government-funded community batik making class. Batik is a form of cloth painting or design using wax and wax resistant dyes.
Emily excelled in that first Batik class and quickly became passionate about the art form. A year later she co-founded the Utopia Women’s Batik Group.
In 1988, the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association collaborated with the Utopia Women’s Batik group on a highly acclaimed exhibition about Utopia. This was the Australian art world’s first introduction to Emily, whose batiks in particular stood out for their intricate patterns and forms meant to represent various flora and fauna of the Utopia ecosystem.
That same year, Emily, who was by then 78 years old, was first introduced to acrylic paint on canvas. It immediately became her medium of choice. She began producing paintings at breakneck speed inspired by the sacred Dreamtime stories of which she served as a community custodian.
At the start of Emily’s eight year career as a professional artist, she mostly painted with the ochre palette used in Aboriginal ceremonial art. But over time, her palette expanded to include the whole array of brilliant colors found in the Utopia desert. She experimented with different textures, colors, forms, and composition- all in an effort to best represent the sacred plants and animals that populated her homeland.
Though she spoke no English, and had never left Utopia before, Emily became an art sensation nearly overnight. Over the next couple of years she had successful solo shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra and London.
In 1992, Emily received an Australian Artist's Creative Fellowship. It was the first time an Indigenous Australian artist had received the prestigious award. In 1995 she was honored with a rare solo exhibition at Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra.
Fame and success were not without their drawbacks, though. Emily was under constant pressure to produce more and more works both from her own extended family, many of whom she supported, and from exploitative art dealers who very often didn’t have her best interests in mind.
But even as her wealth and fame grew, Emily remained in Utopia and continued living a traditional Aboriginal life as she always had. Her work, on the other hand, travelled the world plastered on the bodies of Qantas airplanes and shown in the most prestigious museums and galleries around the globe.
Emily died in Alice Springs near Utopia on September 3rd, 1996. She was 86 years old.
If you’d like to see examples of Emily’s extraordinary work, visit our instagram or facebook page @WomanicaPodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!