KAME COLOUR, 1995

Part 2: Important Aboriginal Art
Melbourne
27 November 2013
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145

EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE

(c.1910 - 1996)
KAME COLOUR, 1995

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

150.0 x 90.0 cm

inscribed verso: artist's name and Delmore Gallery cat. 95I087

Estimate: 
$150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $138,000 (inc. BP) in Auction 32 - 27 November 2013, Melbourne
Provenance

Delmore Gallery, Alice Springs
Collection of Donald and Janet Holt, Northern Territory
Lawson~Menzies, Sydney, 22 November 2006, lot 102
Private collection, Victoria
Lawson~Menzies, Sydney, 19 March 2008, lot 233
Private collection, Melbourne

Catalogue text

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Delmore Gallery.

Kame Colour, 1995 by Emily Kngwareye presents as a boldly formed composition of line that is very powerful. Emily's remarkable command of her canvas space and her artistry with colour has created an immediate and hugely confident visual expression of her country.

Lines are carefully worked over this canvas as an abstract definition of the 'Atnulare' (yam) plant. These lines intersect where life erupts from the earth and spreads with the wild fertility that occurs after drought-breaking rains. This abstract expression is fundamental to understanding Emily Kngwarreye's world.

We also recognise the body paint lines essential to the participatory role of women in ceremony. They take the viewer into an atmosphere of dance and song as a reminder of the inspirational basis that Emily worked from, and through that to the desertdweller's mindset with regard to the vital knowledge and law underpinning survival.

JANET HOLT