YAM AWELYE - RED, 1996
EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
152.5 x 92.0 cm
inscribed verso: artist's name and Delmore Gallery cat. 96H013
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, p. 185, pl. 86 (illus.)
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Delmore Gallery
Soft red lines sweep lightly across the canvas surface. Painted by Emily in the late afternoon, as the evening star rose behind her, the quiet sense of past times 'doing awelye' (ceremony) as darkness was falling was in mind as this work progressed. Smoking gidge a coal added to the atmosphere so poignant.
The line maker linked in to her custodial role and persona and accomplished this as her second last painting. The past energy that created extraordinarily powerful masterpieces had faded, the confident and emboldened stroke of her brush now of the past. This painting was achieved when living permanently at Delmore with Lily Kngwarreye and family in August 1996, a few weeks before her passing.
ANNABEL HOLT AND JANET HOLT