SUMMER YAMS, 1992
EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
153.0 x 91.5 cm
inscribed verso: artist's name and Delmore Gallery cat. 92C043
Private Collection, Donald Holt, Delmore Downs Station, Alice Springs
Isaacs, J., Smith, T., Ryan, J., Holt, D., and Holt,J., Emily Kame Kngwarreye Paintings, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1998, pp. 88–89, pl. 25 (illus.)
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Delmore Gallery
Here, Emily moves with full confidence and resolve after the excitement and satisfaction of an abundant season. She strikes out with a linear form that frames her demonstration of the current tones of the bush foods life cycle, when the ripe fruit and seeds start the process of drying. Intermingling with the fruit and seeds are the paling leaves and flowers of summer and those foods that draw the Emus to feed on her country and to raise their young. Here Emily is at one with her world.
The transformation of the desert after well-timed rain has to be seen to be believed. Bright greens predominate, heat rapidly 'hays off' the growth, and the country settles into a thick-carpeted and dry state. The grass seeds fall and scatter in sweeping swathes with the fall of the land.
This work has been held in the Delmore Collection as, in March 1992, it was viewed as possibly one of the last fabulous flourishes of this signature style. The linear underlay of her paintings was no longer as evident amongst other works of the time.
ANNABEL HOLT AND JANET HOLT