Alhalkere, 1994

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

122 x 92 cm

Est. $70,000 – $90,000

Hammer $65,000

Provenance: Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings, Melbourne, Vic, Cat No. AGOD4132 Private Collection, acquired from the above Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings
Artwork story: Alhalkere is the name of the Country where Emily Kame Kngwarreye was born, the name she held custodianship over for her entire life, and a title that does not describe a place so much as assert an unbroken claim upon it. Her own account of her painting resisted any narrower interpretation: "Arlatyeye (pencil yam); Arkerrthe (mountain devil lizard); Ntange (grass seed); Tingu (dingo pup); Ankerre (emu); Intekwe (plant that emus like); Antwerle (green bean) and Kame (yam seed). That's what I paint; whole lot." A founding member of the Utopia Women's Batik Group since 1977, Kngwarraye came to canvas in 1989 approaching eighty years old. Painted in 1994, this canvas belongs to her high-colourist phase — the same year she made Earth's Creation, which would go on to set the auction record for an Australian female artist. Her global standing was affirmed most recently by a landmark retrospective at Tate Modern, London, in 2025. A ground of deep amber gold suffused with warm mauve-violet, the two colours interpenetrating across the entire surface in the flickering atmospheric oscillation that distinguishes her finest work. Mid-left, a concentrated bloom of coral, orange, and cool grey-green erupts from the broader field with an ember-like intensity, the cool note within it giving the passage an unexpected depth, recalling the land's capacity for sudden and complex transformation.

Catalogues164 of 257

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Sale 3 · Lot 16

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

c.1910 – 1996

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

Alhalkere, 1994

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

122 x 92 cm

Est. $70,000 – $90,000

Hammer $65,000

Provenance: Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings, Melbourne, Vic, Cat No. AGOD4132 Private Collection, acquired from the above Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings
Artwork story: Alhalkere is the name of the Country where Emily Kame Kngwarreye was born, the name she held custodianship over for her entire life, and a title that does not describe a place so much as assert an unbroken claim upon it. Her own account of her painting resisted any narrower interpretation: "Arlatyeye (pencil yam); Arkerrthe (mountain devil lizard); Ntange (grass seed); Tingu (dingo pup); Ankerre (emu); Intekwe (plant that emus like); Antwerle (green bean) and Kame (yam seed). That's what I paint; whole lot." A founding member of the Utopia Women's Batik Group since 1977, Kngwarraye came to canvas in 1989 approaching eighty years old. Painted in 1994, this canvas belongs to her high-colourist phase — the same year she made Earth's Creation, which would go on to set the auction record for an Australian female artist. Her global standing was affirmed most recently by a landmark retrospective at Tate Modern, London, in 2025. A ground of deep amber gold suffused with warm mauve-violet, the two colours interpenetrating across the entire surface in the flickering atmospheric oscillation that distinguishes her finest work. Mid-left, a concentrated bloom of coral, orange, and cool grey-green erupts from the broader field with an ember-like intensity, the cool note within it giving the passage an unexpected depth, recalling the land's capacity for sudden and complex transformation.