Who was Emily Kame Kngwarreye?
Emily Kame Kngwarreye was an Anmatyerr artist from Utopia in the Northern Territory, celebrated as one of Australia's greatest painters. She began painting on canvas in her late seventies and created thousands of works.
Born around 1910 at Alhalkere in the Utopia region, northeast of Alice Springs, Kngwarreye spent most of her life on her country. She first worked in batik with the Utopia Women's Batik Group before turning to acrylic painting in 1988.
In just eight years, until her death in 1996, she produced an estimated 3,000 or more paintings. Her works range from fields of dots to bold sweeping lines and bright colour, often referring to the yam plant, called anwerlarr, and her country.
International acclaim
Kngwarreye represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1997, after her death. Her paintings have been compared with those of major abstract painters, though they come from her own cultural traditions.
Her painting Earth's Creation set a record for a work by an Australian woman artist when it sold in 2007.
Major retrospectives have been held, including at the Tate Modern in London in 2025.
Did You Know?
Kngwarreye's huge work Big Yam Dreaming is held by the National Gallery of Victoria.