Emily Kame Kngwarreye circa 1910-1996

Painted in 1994 for Rodney Gooch, Alice Springs
Marlu Productions (Rodney Gooch), Alice Springs, Northern Territory, catalogue number 29-694
Private collection, France, acquired directly from Rodney Gooch

Kunga, les Femmes de Loi du Desert, Galerie Carry On, Geneva, 8 May - 29 June 2012

Kunga, les Femmes de Loi du Desert, Galerie Carry On, Geneva, 2012

Unframed. Stretched on a basic stretcher. There are small areas of rubbing or scuffing around the edges where the canvas meets the stretcher and there are a number of scratches and scuffs to the surface of the painting, possibly caused at the time of production. No repairs or restorations.
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Cf. See the chapter ‘Body Lines’ in Margo Neale (ed), Utopia : Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2008, pp.135-162, for discussion and images of related paintings from this series.

“The genesis of Emily’s mark-making lies in painting linear markings on women’s bodies for ceremony. In 1994 the profuse dotting and linear patterns of earlier years gave way to a bold austere style of minimal black stripes on white. These singular lines soon evolved into rapidly applied, multi-coloured stripes that evoke the raw and earthy character of body painting. They merge, separate, and cross over each other in various entanglements on large canvases.

While stripes recall the lines that appear on the body as ceremonial markings, these same horizontal and vertical elements resonate with the broader international concept of modernism. …In these works Emily gave new expression to the powerful human tradition of mark-making and transcended the apparent boundaries between contemporary and traditional art practice, the local and universal.” (ibid. p.135)

This painting is sold with an accompanying Marlu Productions certificate of authenticity, signed by Marc Gooch.