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SBS Australia
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
'Watershed moment': Kngwarray at the Tate Modern marks first major solo exhibition of the artist in Europe
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."
SBS Australia
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
History made as first major Emily Kam Kngwarray exhibition opens in Europe
Emily Kam Kngwarray was once asked why people loved her paintings. "I paint my Country and people love my Country," she responded. The senior Anmatyerr woman from Alhalker Country started painting in her seventies, seven years before her death in 1996. Her work depicts her life and her deep knowledge of culture and Country. She is one of the twentieth century's most remarkable artists. Her pieces are cherished across the world and some now hang in a new exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. Five years in the making, the expansive show is a collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia and the first major solo exhibition for an Indigenous Australian artist at the Tate. Co-curator of the exhibition and the Adjunct Curator of Indigenous Art at the Tate Modern Kimberley Moulton told NITV displaying Kngwarray's works in the United Kingdom will introduce new audiences to Indigenous art. The Yorta Yorta woman hopes the show will invite people to learn more about our cultures. Source: Supplied / Kathleen Arundell 'For the first time, we're going to have Tate audiences that are thinking about what Country means to Aboriginal people, not just land, but Country,' she said. 'What we embody in that, in terms of the plants and the land, but also the spiritual aspects of Country, the cultural aspects of Country.' Ms Moulton said sharing culture through art was an important aspect of Kngwarray's practice and this latest showing sees her evolution as an artist. 'I think with the exhibition it's really important to acknowledge that she was very intentional in her work,' she said. 'There was an intent to share her culture with the world, to share these deep layers of Country and knowledge that she had and quite a brilliant approach to colour as well.' Warumungu and Luritja woman and lead curator, Kelli Cole, has worked on previous iterations of the exhibition in collaboration with Hettie Perkins. She brings with her a strong connection with Kngwarray's work and with her community and Country. Having travelled to Kngwarray's community upwards of twelve times over the years, she said working with them was central to the curatorial process. 'Every painting, every wall text, every video, everything we've ever made for this exhibition, her family see it and approve it before we ever display it and that is really, really important,' said Ms Cole. Renowned artist Emily Kam Kngwarray. Credit: NITV The exhibition includes 83 pieces, some of which have never been seen before and have come out of private collections from across Europe and America. Ms Cole said that Kngwarray's global reach and impact is down to her ability to move people of all backgrounds. 'We're in this room that is all about Country and I've got goosebumps talking about it," she said. "There's a visceral feeling about her work and I think that is because knowing that her work is all about painting those ceremonies…the Country that she does ceremony for, so she vitalises that Country, Country is vitalised and it gives back to her." She said Country strikes her in the art. 'As an Aboriginal woman, I feel it, but when I'm with my non-Indigenous colleagues and friends and visitors that have seen this exhibition at the National Gallery or even stand in front of her work regardless of where they are, they always say that they feel something," she said. "I think that is extraordinary.' Lead curator Kelli Cole (left) and Adjunct Curator of Indigenous Art at the Tate Modern, Kimberley Moulton. Credit: NITV Ms Moulton said Kngwarray's practice of drawing solely on her knowledge of and connection to Country, is what makes her a remarkable artist. 'She wasn't looking towards Europe or America in her work, she was very much informed by Country, she was reading and interpreting her land,' Ms Moulton said. 'She started painting in her late seventies, so [there were] decades of this deep connection and I think it's really interesting to see the art world be so responsive to her work in that way because I think what they're responding to is this incredible detail to being true to the cultural ways of being, of her lens, the way she looked at Country and then applied that to the canvas is so unique.' It wasn't a refusal of the Western canon - it just wasn't important. She didn't need it because she had Country and she had culture, and that influenced everything that she was doing, and that was her story that she was telling. Kimberley Moulton, Adjunct Curator of Indigenous Art at the Tate Modern. Kngwarray also regularly painted her namesake, kam, the seedpods of the anwerlarr (pencil yam), an important Dreaming for Kngwarray's Country, Alhalker, showing just how intertwined her identity and Country was. "I paint my plant, the one I am named after," she once said. "Kam is its name. Kam. I am named after the anwelarr plant. I am Kam!" Kngwarray's ability to portray Country truthfully is undeniable and perhaps best summed up by those who knew her best. On one wall of the exhibition a quote from Jedda Purvis Kngwarray, Jennifer Purvis Kngwarray and Josie Kunoth Petyarr is printed. 'If you close your eyes and imagine the paintings in your mind's eye, you will see them transform. They are real - what Kngwarray painted is alive and true. The paintings are dynamic and keep on changing, and you can see how realistic they are," it reads. "You might wonder, 'Hey, how come these paintings are changing form?' That powerful Country changes colour, just like the paintings do. The Country transforms itself, and those paintings do as well. That's why the old woman is famous.' Emily Kam Kngwarray is at Tate Modern from 10 July 2025 until 11 January 2026.
