Emily Kngwarreye - Early Art

Early Art

Emily's initial artistic training was as a traditional Indigenous woman, preparing and using designs for women's ceremonies. Her training in western techniques began, along with that of the rest of the Utopia community, with batik. Her first batik cloth works were created in 1980. Later she moved from batik to painting on canvas:

I did batik at first, and then after doing that I learned more and more and then I changed over to painting for good...Then it was canvas. I gave up on...fabric to avoid all the boiling to get the wax out. I got a bit lazy - I gave it up because it was too much hard work. I finally got sick of it...I didn't want to continue with the hard work batik required - boiling the fabric over and over, lighting fires, and using up all the soap powder, over and over. That's why I gave up batik and changed over to canvas - it was easier. My eyesight deteriorated as I got older, and because of that I gave up batik on silk - it was better for me to just paint.

Acrylic paintings were introduced to Utopia in 1988-89 by Rodney Gooch and others of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA). An exhibition of some of the paintings of these artists' work organised by CAAMA was held called "A Summer Project", where Kngwarreye's work got immediate attention from critics. The attention she received coincided with the worldwide art boom that occurred at this time.

Whereas the predominant Aboriginal style was based on the one developed with some assistance from art teacher Geoffrey Bardon at the Papunya community in 1971 of many similarly sized dots carefully lying next to each other in distinct patterns, Kngwarreye created her own original artistic style. This first style, in her paintings between 1989 and 1991, had many dots, sometimes lying on top of each other, of varying sizes and colours, as seen in Wild Potato Dreaming (1990).

Initially Emily originally painted for CAAMA and The Holt Family at Delmore Downs Station; by 1991 she was producing many works for The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings in Melbourne as well as Fred Torres of Dacou located in Adelaide .

These original paintings of different styles quickly went for high prices at auction, with a turnover for the Utopia group of painters of more than $1 million in 1989-90. First international solo exhibition of Emily was held in Amsterdam at the Oude Kerk in 1999 by The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings. In 2013, the first museum featuring a single Aboriginal Artist will be opened in Melbourne Australia . The Emily Museum is located at 11-15 Christensen St Cheltenham Victoria Australia . It is currently open free of charge to the public as a special preview until November 17 2012 .details are on www.emilymuseum.com.au