Emily Kam Kngwarray

I keep on painting the place that belongs to me – I never change from painting that place. Emily Kam Kngwarray One of the twentieth century’s most significant painters, Emily Kam Kngwarray translated her lived experience and cultural engagement with her Anmatyerr homelands in Central Australia into vibrant batiks and monumental paintings on canvas. Taking up these new artforms in the last decades of her life, in her vast and astonishing oeuvre, Kngwarray embodied the majestic scope of her Country and ancestral heritage. This generously illustrated book, the result of an extensive survey of Kngwarray’s life and work, features original research and reflections from the artist’s community, curators and academics. A large scale publication accompanying a major exhibition celebrating the monumental art of Emily Kam Kngwarray. One of the twentieth century’s most significant painters, Emily Kam Kngwarray (c.1914–1996) translated her lived experience and cultural engagement with her Anmatyerr homelands in Central Australia into vibrant batiks and monumental paintings on canvas. In her vast and astonishing oeuvre, Kngwarray embodied the majestic scope of her Country and ancestral heritage. She layered motifs representing the plants, animals and geological features that formed the desert ecosystems around her. Her unique style and powerful creative vision redefined Aboriginal art and gained worldwide attention. Created in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), this is the first large-scale presentation of the artist's work ever held in Europe and a celebration of her astonishing career. Generously illustrated, the publication brings together Kngwarray's most significant works and includes archival material and a visual record of community consultations and visits to Kngwarray's Country.