'Watershed moment': Kngwarray at the Tate Modern marks first major solo exhibition of the artist in Europe

SBS Australia

14-07-2025

Emily Kam Kngwarray came to art late in her life. Born in 1914, an Anmatyerr woman from Alhalker Country, she started producing her first batiks in the 1980's. Now, hanging in London's Tate Modern Gallery, 83 pieces spanning her 19 year career are on display. Warumungu and Luritja woman and lead curator, Kelli Cole, says the works are an extension of culture. "What you actually see in her work, batik and painting, is actually her culture, that is displayed or depicted onto those paintings. So everything that was important to Kngwarray is a part of her cultural connection to that country, is about her responsibilities to country. It is all about that body paint, that gestural mark that you actually paint when you're doing ceremony. So when you're looking at Kngwarray's paintings, they are just this total connection to who she is as an Anmatyerr woman." Five years in the making, the exhibition is the first major solo exhibition for an Indigenous Australian artist at the Tate. Described as one of Australia's preeminent artists, Emily Kam Kngwarray is one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. Her works include paintings, textiles, and works on paper, and draw their inspiration from a deep connection to Country and cultural traditions. Having travelled to Kngwarray's community upwards of twelve times over the years, Kelli Cole says working with community was central to the curatorial process. "So when I talk about her cultural responsibilities, Kngwarray was a senior elder of her community, so she actually had to partake in ceremony. And so what that meant was they would go on country, they would paint themselves up, they would sing a song. That song had a specific song for each ceremony that she did. And with her gestural marks within her batiks and her paintings actually come from that extraordinary knowledge that she had. So prior to painting, she had been doing that for such a long time." The exhibition includes 83 pieces, some of which have never been shown in public before and have come from private collections from across Europe and America. While Emily Kam Kngwarray is well known in the Australian art world, her works are less recognised in Europe. Kelli Cole says by being on display somewhere like the Tate Modern, the works will gain even wider acclaim. "Look, her impact in Australia is huge. Kngwarray's had several solo exhibitions in Australia and in Japan. So she's a name that is very well known in Australia as a major, major artist. By bringing her works here to the Tate Modern, we are hoping that her name is going to be synonymous with the European sort of vocabulary. It's gonna be Emily Kam Kngwarray, Jackson Pollock, all of these Picassos. We're really hoping that we can actually put her on the world scale or the world stage and people will start knowing her works." The exhibition opened last week and runs until January 11th 2026 at the Tate Modern gallery in London. Considered part of a wider shift to showcase artists previously left out of the spotlight, Art critic Tabish Khan says it is a historic moment for the gallery. "It definitely feels like a watershed moment for Tate Modern to have such a sizable exhibition of an Aboriginal artist. And we're definitely seeing more museums showcasing Indigenous and First Nations artists. And I think it's a reflection of a few things. Number one, that we've neglected these artists and not really shown them, focusing more on Western art history. And two, a recognition that these are cultures that are very much in tune with nature. And part of the problem with the world is the fact that we haven't been in tune with nature. And now we're realising that mistake a bit too late. And these are artists who knew about this from the get-go and we should appreciate what they're telling us in their art."