Kathleen petyarre biography

Kathleen Petyarre

Australian artist (c. –)

Kathleen Petyarre (born Kweyetwemp Petyarre; c. – 24 November , Alice Springs) was an Australian Aboriginal musician. Her art refers directly to her country and her Dreamings.

Petyarre's paintings have occasionally been compared to the works of American Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, and even to those of J. M. W. Turner. She has won several awards and is considered one of the "most collectable artists in Australia".

In addition she received modest funding as co-curator of Kathleen Petyarre: Genius of Place, an exhibition that took place at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art, opening in The artist Kwementyaye Kathleen Petyarre c. Known in childhood as Kweyetemp Petyarre, she and her extended family group moved around their vast desert estate in Anmatyerr country. Their base was Atnangker, a site over which they exerted proprietary rights through the male line.

Her works are in great demand at auctions.[2][3]

Background

Kathleen Petyarre was born at Atnangkere, an important water soakage for Aboriginal people on the western boundary of Utopia Station, &#;km ( miles) north-east of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory.

She belonged to the Alyawarre/Eastern Anmatyerre clan and spoke Eastern Anmatyerre, with English as her second language. Petyarre was the niece of the powerful Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye and had several sisters who are also well-known artists in their own right, among them Gloria, Violet, Myrtle and Jeanna Petyarre.

Kathleen, with her daughter Margaret and her sisters, settled at Iylenty (Mosquito Bore) at Utopia Station, near her birthplace.

Petyarre was introduced to the batik medium at a hippy commune on a visit to Wollongong, New South Wales, and began making her own batik in with the support and encouragement of the linguist and adult education instructor Jenny Leafy.

Petyarre continued to produce batiks with other women at Utopia until the late s, when, prompted by allergies to the chemicals they were using, she began developing her signature approach of painting with acrylic on canvas.

Style

Petyarre's technique consisted of layering very fine dots of thin acrylic paint onto the canvas, evoking the Aboriginal custom of ceremonial body painting, to carefully construct abstract landscapes that reveal a remarkable depth when viewed up close.

The dots are used to represent, among other things, flowers and spinifex, or animated clouds of sand, hail or even bush seeds. Meanwhile, various shapes and colours are used to depict geographical features such as sand-hills, watercourses and rockholes.

Her imagery has been described as "simultaneously macro- and microcosmic".[4]

Most of Petyarre's paintings detail the journeys of her Dreaming Ancestor, Arnkerrth, the Aged Woman Mountain Devil, and are indicative of the Aborigines' traditional land navigation skills.

She adopted an aerial view typical of her region's artworks to reconstruct memorised landscapes and express her Dreamings as "a barely tangible, shadowy palimpsest, overwritten, as it were, by the surface colours and movement". She described her paintings as "like looking down on my country during the hot time, when the land changes colour I love to make the painting like it’s moving, travelling, but it’s still our body painting, still our ceremony.[4]"

From about –, Petyarre's style became bolder, with clusters of larger dots and stronger lines alongside the very pleasant textures for which the painter is known.

While this design was decried in some quarters as being less refined, it has also been hailed as a logical artistic development towards a more powerful and dramatic mode of expression, "perhaps more abstract, certainly more modern in its technicality and presentation" (text Gallerie Australis, Adelaide).

Reputation

Petyarre's increase to international recognition began at the Aboriginal Art from Utopia exhibition at the Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, on 31 October Despite remaining a relative unknown for the years to track, she surprised the art nature in by selling out her first solo exhibition, Kathleen Petyarre: Storm in Atnangkere Country, at Melbourne's Alcaston House Gallery.[citation needed]

Her considerable reputation as one of Australia's most original indigenous artists was confirmed by her regular inclusion in exhibitions at esteemed international museums and galleries.

A book about her art, Genius of Place, was published in in conjunction with a solo exhibition of her works at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney, and her paintings can be found in public and private collections all over the world.

Kathleen Petyarre began her rise to the world stage with a groundbreaking exhibition at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Flinders Lane, Melbourne on 31 Octobersupplied and curated by Delmore Gallery. Born in at Atnangkere, to the northwest of Utopia station, kilometres north east of Alice Springs, Kathleen Petyarre belongs to the Eastern Anmatyerre language group. Kathleen began making artworks inproducing batiks along with a number of the other women at Utopia, when Yipati, a Pitjantjatjara artist from Ernabella and Suzie Bryce, a craft instructor, introduced them to the medium. Later, Jenny Green and Julia Murray would supply materials, development and encouragement.

Her work was selected, along with just a handful of Aboriginal artists, for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.[citation needed]

Controversy

In , Petyarre was the Overall Winner of the 13th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Controversy arose in when Petyarre's estranged partner of ten years, Ray Beamish, claimed that he had been a major contributor to the winning painting, Storm in Atnangkere State II, which currently hangs at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin.

This controversy, which shook the Aboriginal art market at the time, brought attention to the communal nature of art production in her culture and resulted in a much stricter emphasis being put on the documentation of authorship in Aboriginal paintings.

Petyarre’s name was eventually cleared and she retained her award. She went on to criticise Beamish for appropriating “her birthright” (her Dreaming) in his own paintings.

Awards

  • Overall Winner of the Telstra 13th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT, Australia
  • Overall Winner of the Visy Board Art Prize, the Barossa Vintage Festival Art Show, Nurioopta SA, Australia
  • Finalist, Seppelt Contemporary Art Awards – Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia[5]
  • Winner, People's Choice Award, Seppelt Contemporary Art Awards , Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • Kathleen Petyarre, Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
  • Old Woman alex award , Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
  • Ilyenty – Mosquito Bore, Recent Paintings, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
  • Genius of Place: The Work of Kathleen Petyarre, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia[6]
  • Landscape, Truth and Beauty – Recent Paintings by Kathleen Petyarre, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
  • Recent Painting by Kathleen Petyarre, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney, Australia
  • Arnkerrthe – My Dreaming, Alcaston Home Gallery, Melbourne Australia
  • Kathleen Petyarre: Storm in Aknangkerre Country, Alcaston House Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Selected organization exhibitions

  • Gallery Anthony Curtis, Boston MA, USA[7]
  • Galerie Rigassi, Bern, Switzerland
  • Prism – Contemporary Australian Art, Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan[8]
  • National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, USA
  • Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA
  • Galerie Clément, Vevey, Switzerland
  • Gallerie Commines, Paris, France
  • New Directions in Contemporary Aboriginal Painting, Songlines Gallery, San Francisco, USA
  • Kathleen Petyarre, Retrospective Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia
  • Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
  • Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland
  • Aboriginal Art from Utopia, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia

Major collections

  • Royal Collection of HM Queen Elizabeth II[9]
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA[10]
  • Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France[11]
  • Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France
  • AAMU Museum for Contemporary Aboriginal Art&#;[nl], Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia[12]
  • National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia[13]
  • Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia[14]
  • Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Region, Darwin, Australia
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) Collection, Australia
  • Edith Cowan University, Perth Australia
  • Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide, Australia
  • Royal Palace Museum, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
  • Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, USA
  • Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA
  • Riddock Regional Art Gallery, Mount Gambier, Australia
  • Essl Collection, Vienna, Austria
  • BHP Billiton Collection, Melbourne, Australia
  • Holmes à Court Collection,[15] Perth, Australia
  • The Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, Australia
  • Levi-Kaplan Collection, Seattle, Washington, USA
  • University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
  • Adelaide Festival Centre Faith Collection, Adelaide, Australia
  • Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA (permanent loan)
  • Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia (permanent loan)
  • Biebuyck Family Collection, Boston, Massachusetts

Notes

Further reading

  • Harwood, Tristen ().

    "An essay on the works of Western Desert women artists and Aboriginal culture". Emerging Scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies. 1 (1). Retrieved 31 July

  • Bolt, Barbara (March ). "Rhythm and the Performative Power of the Index – Lessons from Kathleen Petyarre's Paintings".

    Cultural Studies Review. 12 (1): 57– doi/csr.v12i Retrieved 25 July

  • Biddle, Jennifer (). "Country, Skin, Canvas: The Intercorporeal Art of Kathleen Petyarre". Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art. 4 (1): 61– doi/ S2CID&#;
  • Chambers, Iain (June ).

    "Whose Modernity? Whose Home? The Desert Art of Kathleen Petyarre". CR: The New Centennial Review. 3 (2): – doi/ncr S2CID&#; Retrieved 25 July

  • Sisters/Yakkananna, Kahui Mareikura Exhibition, Tandanya, Adelaide, South Australia, 3 March – 28 April , published by National Aboriginal Cultural Institute – Tandanya, page 8,16
  • Nicholls, Christine; North, Ian ().

    Kathleen Petyarre: Genius of Place. Wakefield Press.

    "Aboriginal Art from Utopia" began to put Kathleen Petyarre on the map with her early, powerful paintings on linen. Born in at Atnangkere, to the northwest of Utopia station, kilometres north east of Alice Springs, Kathleen Petyarre belongs to the Eastern Anmatyerre language group.

    ISBN&#;.

  • Nicholls, Christine (). Genius of Place: The Work of Kathleen Petyarre&#;: 9 May July . Museum of Contemporary Art.
  • Rolls, Eric (). Karra. Adelaide Festival Centre Visual Arts Department.

    pp.&#;18, 19, 27, 30, ISBN&#;.

  • Osborne, Margot (). The Return of Beauty, Jam Factory Contemporary Craft & Design, Adelaide, South Australia, pp., 9,22,23,28,29,30
  • Croft, Brenda L (). Beyond The Pale, catalogue, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art , Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, , pp., 14,65 – 69, 99, ,
  • Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia, Vol., 32 No's., 1 & 2.

    pp.&#;1 – 32

  • Across – An exhibition of indigenous Art and Culture, ANU Canberra Institution of Art Gallery, curated by Doreen Mellor, catalogue published ANU Canberra School of Art Gallery, , pp.&#;3,4,11
  • Spiritualidad y arte Aborigen Australiano, Comuidad de Madrid, Consejeria De Cultura, Madrid, Spain,
  • Neale, Margo; Klienert, Sylvia; Bancroft, Robyne ().

    The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. Oxford University Press. pp.&#;, ISBN&#;.

  • Recent Paintings by Kathleen Petyarre, catalogue, , Gallerie Australis, Adelaide, South Australia
  • Ryan, Judith ().

    Raiki Wara: Drawn-out Cloth from Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait.

    I was introduced to aboriginal art about 25 years ago after a friend spent several months in and around Alice Spring in Australia. When she returned to the U. Of all the art she introduced me to, it was the pioneering preceding women painters— Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Kathleen Petyarre, Gloria Petyarre, Dorothy Napangardi, Minnie Pwerle —whose function spoke to me most powerfully. Now, all these years later, all these early artists contain passed away with the exception of Gloria Petyarre.

    National Gallery of Victoria. ISBN&#;.

  • "Kathleen Petyarre and the Heroic Odyssey of Arnekerrth". Art Monthly Australasia. No.&#; October pp.&#;7–9.
  • Radford, Ron ().

    Artist: Kathleen Petyarre Born: c. No vital Aboriginal art collection is fulfill without work from this iconic artist. Kathleen was born circaat the remote location of Atnangkere, an important water soakage for Aboriginal people on the western boundary of Utopia Station, kilometres north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Kathleen's mother and seven sisters held onto their land adjacent Utopia Station as a community, establishing a camp at Atnetyeye - Boundary Bore.

    Treasures. Art Gallery of South Australia. pp.&#;, ISBN&#;.

  • Seppelt Contemporary Art Awards MCA Catalogue, , pp.&#;14–18, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW
  • Morphy, Howard (). Aboriginal Art.

    Phaidon. pp.&#;, , ISBN&#;.

  • The Times Higher Learning process Supplement, 3 March , London, UK, pg. 30, 31
  • Telstra, 15th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Catalogue, , Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, pg.

    The artist Kwementyaye (Kathleen) Petyarre (c. – 24 November ) has died in Alice Springs, surrounded by family and loved ones, at about the age of Alhwarrpe. “About” that age.

    4, 38, 39

  • Expanse: Aboriginalities, spatialities and the politics of ecstasy, an exhibition by Ian North, , Art Museum University of South Australia, pp.&#;3, 5, 6, 8, 12, 22, 23
  • Cossey, David (). Dreampower: Art of Contemporary Aboriginal Australia&#;: a Travelling Exhibition Proudly Presented by Gallerie Australis.

    Museum Art International. pp.&#;16, ISBN&#;.

  • Johnson, Vivien; Hylton, Jane (). Dreamings of the Desert. Art Gallery of South Australia. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
  • Boulter, Michael (). The Art of Utopia: A New Direction in Contemporary Aboriginal Art.

    Craftsman House. pp.&#;83, ISBN&#;.

  • Brody, Annemarie (). Utopia: A Picture Story&#;: 88 Silk Batiks from the Robert Holmes À Court Collection. Heytesbury Holdings.

    kathleen petyarre biography1: Kathleen Petyarre (born Kweyetwemp Petyarre; c. – 24 November , Alice Springs) was an Australian Aboriginal artist. Her art refers directly to her country and her Dreamings.

    ISBN&#;.

  • Contemporary aboriginal art from the Robert Holmes à Court Collection. Heytesbury Holdings. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
  • Brody, Anne (). Utopia Women's Paintings: The First Works on Canvas', A Summer Project , Catalogue No.7

External links