Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Emily Kame Kngwarreye (* 1910, † September 3, 1996 ) was an Australian artist who lived the tribe of Aborigines of Anmatyerre in the artists' colony Utopia in the Northern Territory. She was the most successful Aboriginal artist in the international art market.

The total value of their work is higher than that of any other artist of the Aborigines. Your image Earth 's Creation, which was created in 1995 In 2007, a record price for Aboriginal art of 1,056,000 AUD ( approximately EUR 600,000 ). Her principal work of the " Final Series " which was first issued in the Gallery Savah 1997 In 2008, the price of 1.1 million Australian dollars (AUD ). Merely the Aboriginal Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was successful with an average selling price of AUD 2.5 million for a single image.

Born in 1910, Kngwarreye began painting seriously until she was almost 80 years old. She lived as Anmatyerre in Alhalkere in the Utopia community of artists, about 200 km north-east of Alice Springs. For most of her later life she and her community were known for batik art. Acrylic painting was introduced into the community around 1988 /89 by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association ( CAAMA ). An exhibition of some pictures of the group, which was organized by the CAAMA, was called " A Summer Project"; Kngwarreyes work moved there immediately to the attention of critics. At the same time a global boom in art took place in general.

While the dominant style in the Aboriginal art based on the style that was developed in conjunction with Papunya Geoffrey Bardon 1971 and includes points of similar size, which were next to each other lined up to a certain pattern, Kngwarreye created her own artistic style. First, in the period between 1989 and 1991 had their pictures many points that sometimes lay above one another, in others she mixed different sizes and colors as in the picture Wild Potato Dreaming by 1990.

These unique images with different themes were soon auctioned for high prices, with sales of more than 1 million AUD in the financial year 1989-90.

Style

Kngwarreye went through several changes her style in her short career as a professional painter. 1992 began their points to lines with horizontal and vertical stripes in different colors to unite, rivers, and terrain represented. She began thicker brush to use and the points were greater than at the initial time of their work.

In 1993 she began to paint color stains, along with many points that looked like rings around an open center, as in the picture Alaqura Profusion of 1993, which belongs to this " dump - dump - style ". She put these images using a shaving brush and very bright colors represents the rings of colors can also be seen in My Mothers Country and Emu Country (1994).

Yam Dreaming

The following year was marked by a more aesthetic and more contemporary style, which brought its " color phase ". Instead, she began to paint simple stripes that crossed on the canvas. At first it was thick strips, which mostly represented the yams, as in Yam Dreaming ( 1994) and Bush Yam (1995 ) is hard to find the strange growth of yams, which was essential for survival in the desert, but. In the course of 1995 began their images to those of American abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock resemble, with many thinner lines that cross each other on the screen. However, they kept the theme of the dream time and in as Yam Dreaming Awelye (1995) and in black / white Yam Dreaming. A few weeks before her death, she painted several pictures within three days with a thick brush, so among other Body Paint ( 1996).

Yam was an aspect they especially turned out in their work. She painted many pictures with this subject and started a picture is the fact that they opened the old track of the Yam. The plant was especially meaningful to them, as their middle name " Kame " the yellow flower of the plant called that grows close to the ground. In one of the few comments she made about her work, she described how her pictures have a lot to do with the life of the community and the yams: "The whole, that's all, the whole: Awelye, arlatyeye, ankerrthe, ntange, dingo, ankerre, intekwe, anthwerle and kame. That's what I paint: the whole.

Success

The success and demand for Kngwarreyes images caused her many problems in the community, as they tried to maintain their individuality. The myth of the woman with her 80 years that has never been outside the Central Desert and a great painter is, was one reason their popularity. In fact, she had been in Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Canberra, albeit after she had become famous. There was also a lot of pressure on them in a certain way to paint when traders believe that a style is more successful than another.

Eight pictures of Emily Kngwarreye were summarized in the Sotheby's auction winter 2000 and sold for 507,550 AUD, with Awelye (1989 ) earned 156,500 AUD.

On 23 May 2007, the image Earth 's Creation scored 1,056,000 AUD in German - Menzies auction in Sydney and set a new record in the Aboriginal art on. The Mbantua Gallery was the successful bidder.

With the success came uninvited attention. Many traders without understanding of art came into their community and tried to participate in the success. Kngwarreye once told a friend how she escaped five or six carloads of would-be traders in Utopia. Your pictures made ​​for a the entire living there Aboriginal community income. In a society that does not believe in individual property, but the fact that you owned shares with the entire group, she gave the opportunity to go into retirement in order to continue to provide their relatives with money can.

After Tim Ringing of Sotheby's was " the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye [ ..] an example of an Aboriginal artist who was constantly harassed by carpet dealers and towards the end of their careers but a large number of images produced inkonsistene [ ..] We take about one of twenty of their images and with these we try to be sure of the origin. "

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions:

• Coventry, Sydney, 1990
• Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, 1990, 1991, 1992
• Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, 1991
• Savah Gallery, Sydney, 1994, 1996, 1997.
• Mbantua Gallery and Cultural Museum, 2007-08
• The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2008
• National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2008

Group Exhibitions: Numerous group exhibitions, including:

Prices

Australian Artist's Creative Fellowship, Australia Council, 1992.