“My Country” 1995

Artist: EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE

Cat#: PGUT036

Size: 91cm x 125cm

Medium: Painting

Acrylic on Canvas.
Provenance: Signed “Emily” in pencil; Tineriba Gallery, Utopia 1995 identification and codes: A1460/EKTTG 11.’95/EKK951571/Pandanus Gallery PGUT036. The painting is very similar to the image in the Margo Neale edited catalogue “Utopia: the Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye” accompanying the Japanese exhibition of 2008 ref page 238, although that image is a very small section of a much larger painting.

Condition: Original condition. Painted on the ground in Utopia to the edges of the canvas and includes sandy dog/dingo footprints and leaf matter in the bottom left quarter/centre of the painting. Professionally strip mounted to facilitate effective stretching.

The painting: Painted in the year before Emily’s death it contrasts with her wide ranging, inspirational, contrasting styles and enormous canvases that earned her recognition as one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. A comparatively small painting in contrast, it is a very beautiful and powerful work characteristic of the guileless raw spirituality of her subject matter, namely “My Country”. The presence of dingo or dog footprints and vegetation on the canvas attests to the humility and passion of the artist and is further verification of the work’s origins.