Altyerre, Spinifex Dreaming, 1994

118 x 93 cm, 120.5 x 96 cm frame

Est. $120,000 – $140,000

Provenance: Utopia Batik and Art, NT, Cat No. EK225* Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings, Vic, Cat No. 3532 Private Collection, Vic *Commissioned by Alan Glaetzer, the store manager at Utopia. Glaetzer went on to set up Utopia Batik with the community council, which ran for nearly four years through the early 1990s. Later, he worked for the Central Land Council.
Artwork story: Emily Kngwarreye was an entirely intuitive painter whose painting style changed month by month throughout the 7-year painting career she began at 79 years of age. Her early painting style featured visible linear tracings following the tracks of the Kam (Yam) and animal prints, as in Emu Dreamings, with fields of fine dots partially obscuring symbolic elements and playing across the surface of her canvases. By 1992 her fine dotting and symbolic underpainting had given way to works in which symbols and tracks were increasingly concealed beneath a sea of dots until eventually they were no longer evident at all. During the period when Emily created this beautiful painting in the summer of 1994, her works had become highly descriptive of country as if viewing the undulating landscape from an omnipotent viewpoint. Here the fine highly colour charged dotting emanates energy due to the keyed-up expectation of rain, the excitement of its arrival and the explosive flowering of the desert. The painted surface breaks up into organic shapes and patterns suggesting hills and valleys, underground water sources, and of course the landscape in floral profusion. The rhythmic arrangement of shapes evokes a sense of natural harmony and movement, reflecting her deep spiritual relationship with the land. The composition conveys a rich visual texture, suggesting the intricate interplay between the natural environment and ancestral traditions. Paintings like this were soon to give way to works that became progressively visually abstracted and ethereal.

Catalogues42 of 257

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Sale 1 · Lot 44

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

c.1910 – 1996

Region: Eastern Desert
Community: Utopia
Language group: Anmatyerr (Anmatyerre)

Altyerre, Spinifex Dreaming, 1994

118 x 93 cm, 120.5 x 96 cm frame

Est. $120,000 – $140,000

Provenance: Utopia Batik and Art, NT, Cat No. EK225* Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings, Vic, Cat No. 3532 Private Collection, Vic *Commissioned by Alan Glaetzer, the store manager at Utopia. Glaetzer went on to set up Utopia Batik with the community council, which ran for nearly four years through the early 1990s. Later, he worked for the Central Land Council.
Artwork story: Emily Kngwarreye was an entirely intuitive painter whose painting style changed month by month throughout the 7-year painting career she began at 79 years of age. Her early painting style featured visible linear tracings following the tracks of the Kam (Yam) and animal prints, as in Emu Dreamings, with fields of fine dots partially obscuring symbolic elements and playing across the surface of her canvases. By 1992 her fine dotting and symbolic underpainting had given way to works in which symbols and tracks were increasingly concealed beneath a sea of dots until eventually they were no longer evident at all. During the period when Emily created this beautiful painting in the summer of 1994, her works had become highly descriptive of country as if viewing the undulating landscape from an omnipotent viewpoint. Here the fine highly colour charged dotting emanates energy due to the keyed-up expectation of rain, the excitement of its arrival and the explosive flowering of the desert. The painted surface breaks up into organic shapes and patterns suggesting hills and valleys, underground water sources, and of course the landscape in floral profusion. The rhythmic arrangement of shapes evokes a sense of natural harmony and movement, reflecting her deep spiritual relationship with the land. The composition conveys a rich visual texture, suggesting the intricate interplay between the natural environment and ancestral traditions. Paintings like this were soon to give way to works that became progressively visually abstracted and ethereal.