Awelye II
Anmatyerre people, Northern Territory
c.1910 – 2 September 1996
Awelye II
1994
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
- Place made
- Utopia, Northern Territory
- Medium
- synthetic polymer paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- 128.5 x 98.5 cm (irreg)
- Credit line
- South Australian Government Grant 1995
- Accession number
- 955P35
- Signature and date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Media category
- Painting
- Collection area
- Australian paintings - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
- Copyright
- © Estate of Emily Kame Kngwarreye/Copyright Agency
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Perhaps one of the most internationally recognised Australian artists, Emily Kame Kngwarreye first received acclaim for her batik paintings. Kngwarreye, who was born about 1910 at Alhalkere soakage in the Northern Territory, dedicated ten years to the textile medium before moving to painting on canvas in the late 1980s. Although she painted a variety of subjects, including bush foods and emu stories, the markings painted on women’s bodies during ceremonies are depicted in her work Awelye I–V, comprising five panels of canvas. Awelye (body-paint designs) figured in Kngwarreye’s artistic practice in a variety of styles, including dots. However, this series, with bold green and white stripes set against black background, marks a new expression in her practice, which moved towards a more minimal and abstracted awelye. The power that these horizontal bands of colour emit underlines both Kngwarreye’s artistic acumen and her ancestral knowledge.
Gloria Strzelecki, Associate Curator of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art
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VERSUS RODIN: BODIES ACROSS SPACE AND TIME
Art Gallery of South Australia, 4 March 2017 – 16 July 2017