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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian & International Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Aug 2016 ~ 6.30pm - Part 1 (Lots 1 - 78)
  30 Aug 2016 ~ 2.30pm - Part 2 (Lots 79 - 328)
• Lot #:
  13
• Lot Description:
  Emily Kame Kngwarreye
  (circa 1910 -1996)
  Yam Dreaming (1995)
  synthetic polymer paint on canvas
  153 x 178 cm
• Provenance:
  DACOU Aboriginal Art Gallery, Adelaide; Patrick Torres, South Australia; Private Collection, Sydney; Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne; Private Collection, Perth
• References:
  This painting is accompanied with DACOU Aboriginal Art Gallery documentation. RELATED WORKS: A similar example with the same provenance, Anwerlarr Angerr (Big Yam) 1996 is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• Notes:
  Yam Dreaming (1995) is from a series of paintings produced by Emily Kngwarreye during the last two years of her life. They are among her most confident works and are known collectively as Yam paintings. Black and white examples of this series include the monumental three by eight metre Big Yam Dreaming (1995) in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. Coloured versions featuring the same yellow through to reddish brown ochres and white on black background include the four panel Big Yam (1996) that was exhibited in Kngwarreye's solo survey exhibition at The National Art Center in Tokyo and the National Museum of Art in Osaka in 2008. Kngwarreye's spectacular stylistic evolution over a canvas painting career of eight years marks her as one of the most unique figures of creative genius in Australian art, but the Yam Series also demonstrates the coherence and consistency behind her artistic vision. The series are called Yam paintings because they celebrate one of the staples of an Aboriginal desert-dweller's diet. Knowledge about where to find yams, when is the best time to harvest them, and how, is part of the survival knowledge invested in Kngwarreye as a spiritual elder whose name Kame actually means yam seed. The artist's early dotting series of paintings had barely visible under-layers of organic grids similar to the later yam paintings. The grids, or rhizomes as they are often described, become prominent in later works as the artist explores and experiments with the persistent structural logic of her artistic vision. Kngwarreye's consistent intentions as an artist are often overlooked by perceptions of her being an intuitive artist. Akira Tatehata, the former Director of the National Art Center of Tokyo and co-curator the 2008 survey exhibition, is one art scholar who did identify this sense of purpose, particularly in Kngwarreye's Yam paintings. He wrote in the exhibition catalogue that, "In Emily's case, intentionally painting something often meant painting something related to her Dreaming. The yam's rhizome, spreading outward like a net, is a symbol of life and a symbol of the earth that nurtures one and one's clan". (Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, 2008, p. 87) Yam Dreaming (1995) is an exceptional example of the Yam Series in terms of its immersive quality. When confronted with the simple concept of overlapping lines, the automatic impulse is to determine the sequence or path of the lines and how they are connected. But Kngwarreye's colour variations and the way that she constructs this grid tends to immerse the viewer into the space of the artwork, somewhat similarly to the way that Jackson Pollock's skeins of paint absorb us somehow 'inside' the painting. It is a form of viewer engagement unique to abstract paintings that demand an experience of visual perception rather than simply representing something more literally. Kngwarreye's art shares this with Pollock and similar modernists, despite her being unknowing and probably uncaring of what drove other abstract artists. The brightest part of Yam Dreaming (1995) is the white element that is uniquely shaped as a T in the bottom centre half of the image. Here is the hook, the fruit, that leads us into Kngwarreye's world and her vision of a life-sustaining energy expressed as an abstract organic grid. Dr Sally Butler
• Estimate:
  A$90,000 - 120,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.