kudditji kngwarreye: my country - travelling through utopia

6 DUKE STREET ST. JAMES’SL O N D O N S W 1 Y 6 B NT E L . + 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 7 9 3 0 9 3 3 2FA X . + 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 7 9 3 0 5 5 7 7i n f o @ w h i t f o r d f i n e a r t . c o mw w w. w h i t f o r d f i n e a r t . c o m

WHITFORDF I N E A R T

Kudditji Covers 15/9/10 17:54

CAZIEL Pages 2012_Whitford 24/04/2012 12:00 Page B

KUDDITJI KNGWARREYE

15th October – 5th November 2010

6 DUKE STREET ST. JAMES’S LONDON SW1Y 6BNTEL. +44 (0)20 7930 9332 EMAIL [email protected]

www.whitfordfineart.com


All works are for sale

Kudditji Pages 14/9/10 20:05 Page 1

Front cover: My Country , 2007 (cat. no. 17)Back cover: My Country , 2006 (cat. no. 21)

KUDDITJI KNGWARREYE


Kudditji Kngwarreye is one of Aus tralia’s leading Aboriginal artis ts. He recounts his travels across his land in

blocks of s trong colour boasting outstanding aesthetic excellence. His art tr anscends the notions of time and

place, thus reflecting true Aboriginal culture. Moreover, his paintings unavoidably draw strong associations with

Western abstract art.

Kudditji’s knowledge of his country is as vast as the land itself, both in a physic al sense and in its history and how it

came into being. Born around 1928 at Alkahare, Kudditji is part of the Anmaty erre language group, whose land is

situated in Utopia, North East of Alice Springs. Early in life, Kudditji learned his peoples’ ‘Dreamings’ and as an Elder,

he taught the younger boys the practical skills of hunting as well as knowledge of the ceremonial sites in Utopia.

Most of the four hundred-odd Aboriginal cultures in Australia share the belief that the w orld was created in the

‘Dreaming’ by ancestral spirits who left symbols all around them to guide them in their lives. If one can understand

these symbols then one has a complete understanding of the world and of the meaning of life. In order to gain and

retain this knowledge over the generations, the Aboriginal peoples travel their territory. In their travels, they relive

their Dreamings and ancestral stories as a collective.

Whereas most Aboriginal painters depict the actual ancestral symbols from what seems to be a hovering position

above the ground, Kudditji chooses t o portray the essence of his land and his tr avels without perspective. His

paintings capture the changing moods and seasons of the t erritory, songs, s tories, hunts and the f ood and

waterholes of the Anmaty erre country, thus uniting the earthl y and timel ess perceptions associated with his

culture. His colour-block paintings encompass an omnipresent point of view; stripped of the notions of time and

place, they seem t o have no beginning and no end. This pr actice inevitably brings t o mind Jackson P ollock’s

statement ‘When I am painting I hav e a general notion as to what I am about. I c an control the flow of the paint.

… There is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end.’ Whereas Jackson Pollock relied on his intuition

and his body to infuse his images with emotional f orce, Kudditji interprets the timeless collective memory of his

people. Aesthetically Kudditji’s paintings have been compared to those of Mark Rothko and Hans Hofmann, whose

Colour-Field paintings practically remain unknown to Kudditji.

In fact, during the 1970’s when Utopia station was ceded to the Aboriginal people, Kudditji drove cattle and worked

in various goldmines in the Northern T erritory. The y ounger brother of the c elebrated painter Emily Kame

Knwarreye, Kudditji came to painting only in 1986. Initiall y, he assisted his sister when she de veloped her own

original artistic style. Stimulated by the intr oduction of acrylic paints, Emil y painted large lyrical abstracts,

contradicting previous notions of what c ontemporary Indigenous art meant. During the 1990s, Kudditji intuitiv ely

set out to develop his famed sister’s dot and line abstracts into colour-block Abstraction.

Kudditji’s paintings embody the v ast landscape of his country, sweltering under the extreme elements, charged

with the cultural symbols and stories of his people. He celebrates a rapidly disappearing way of Aboriginal lif e in

sensational colours, thus making his art a bright torch on the path from Utopia to the modern world.

An Jo Fermon, October 2010

‘MY COUNTRY’: Travelling through Utopia


1. My Country 2009

Acrylic on canvas91 x 91 cm

Fig. 1: Cliffs and breakaway country in the Western Desert


2. My Country 2006



3. My Country 2009



4. My Country 2007



5. My Country 2009



6. My Country 2009



7. My Country 2007



8. My Country 2009



9. My Country 2009



Fig. 2: Dry clay-pan, glazed by the relentless sun


10. My Country 2006



11. My Country 2007



12. My Country 2009



13. My Country 2008



14. My Country 2009



Fig. 3: Ghost gum clinging to the red cliffs of Karlamilyi, deep in the Great Sandy Desert


15. My Country 2008



16. My Country 2009



17. My Country 2007



18. My Country 2007



19. My Country 2006



20. My Country 2009



21. My Country 2006



Fig. 4: Rock formations deep in the Western Desert region


22. My Country 2009



23. My Country 2009



24. My Country 2007



25. My Country 2007



26. My Country 2008



27. My Country 2009



28. My Country 2006



Fig. 5: A clay-pan, filled with fresh water after rare rain, in the desert of Central Australia


29. My Country 2009



30. My Country 2009

Acrylic on canvas122 x180 cm


SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010 Kudditji Kngwarreye, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney2009 Kudditji Kngwarreye - a selection of works from the

Hank Ebes Collection, Burrinja Gallery, Upwey, Melbourne; Kudditji Kngwarreye - Recent Works, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle

2008 30 Emu Dreamings, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney; My Country, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2006 New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne; My Country, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2005 Colours in Country, Art Mob, Hobart, Tasmania; New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne; Waterhole Aboriginal Art, Danks Street, Sydney

2004 My Country, Japingka Gallery, Perth; Kudditji Kngwarreye: My Country - New Paintings , Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne; Waterhole Aboriginal Art, Sofitel Wentworth Exhibition, Sydney

2003 New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2010 Utopia: Eastern Anmatyerre Artists, Neo Gallery, Brisbane; Arnkerrthe - A Tribute to Nancy Petyarre , Astras Gallery, Gold Coast; Summer Collection, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2009 Aboriginal Art, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney; Summer Collection, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney; Pink 2009, Art Mob Aboriginal Fine Art, Hobart, Tasmania; Utopia 09, Neo Gallery, Brisbane; Size Matters, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney; Kudditji Kngwarreye - Pastels new works, new palette, Kate Owen Gallery, SydneyRêves Aborigènes, Musée Arts et Histoire de Bormes-Les-Mimosas, Bormes-Les-Mimosas, France

2008 Black & White: Inspired By Landscape, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney; Central Australian Aboriginal Art - The Ultimate Collection, Alice Sundown Aboriginal Art, Alice Springs; Utopia, Art Equity, Sydney

2007 Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings, John Leech Gallery, Auckland

2006 Artist of Utopia Then & Now, Outback Alive, Canberra; Togart Contemporary Art Exhibition, Darwin; Masterwork, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

2005 Fresh from the Central Desert, Outback Alive, Canberra Grammar School, Canberra;Ken Field Memorial Art Exhibition, Scotch College, Melbourne; Big Country, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs; Colours in Country, Art Mob Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania

2004 Two Senior Men, Art Mob Gallery, Tasmania; Heartbeat – Living Country, WentworthHotel, Sydney; Australian Exhibition Centre, Chicago; Spirit of Colour, Depot Gallery, Sydney

2002 The Contemporaries, Contemporary Artspace, Brisbane

1999 Chapel off Chapel Gallery, Melbourne1992 Tjukurrpa, Museum für Völkerkunde, Basel,

Switzerland1991 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft

Exhibition, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs1990 Art Dock, Contemporary Art from Australia ,

Noumea, New Caledonia

COLLECTIONS

Hank Ebes Collection, MelbourneAraluen Art Center, Alice SpringsMacquarie University, SydneyGuillemain and Sordello Collection, France

KUDDITJI KNGWARREYE (born c.1928)


Text and paintings images: © Whitford Fine Art

Figs. 1-5: © Tim Acker

Photographs of the Artist: © An Jo Fermon

Produced by Artmedia Press Ltd • London

Adrian Mibus with the Artist


CAZIEL Pages 2012_Whitford 24/04/2012 12:00 Page C

6 DUKE STREET ST. JAMES’SL O N D O N S W 1 Y 6 B NT E L . + 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 7 9 3 0 9 3 3 2FA X . + 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 7 9 3 0 5 5 7 7i n f o @ w h i t f o r d f i n e a r t . c o mw w w. w h i t f o r d f i n e a r t . c o m


Kudditji Covers 15/9/10 17:54 Page 1

kudditji kngwarreye: my country - travelling through utopia

Documents

w h i t f o r d f i

jamessl o n d o n s

c o mw w

c o mwhitfordf

t erritory

r tkudditji

aboriginal peoples

f ood andwaterholes