A CARPETED DESERT, 1990

Important Australian + International Fine Art
Melbourne
30 April 2014
45

EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE

(c.1910 - 1996)
A CARPETED DESERT, 1990

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

211.0 x 121.0 cm

inscribed verso: artist's name and Delmore Gallery cat. 0026

Estimate: 
$65,000 - 95,000
Sold for $72,000 (inc. BP) in Auction 35 - 30 April 2014, Melbourne
Provenance

Delmore Gallery, Alice Springs
Aboriginal Artists Gallery, Sydney
Private collection, United States of America, acquired from the above in 1991
Private collection, Switzerland
Christie's, Sydney, 12 October 2004, lot 58
Private collection, Queensland

Catalogue text

Emily has spent most of her life at this place and knows it intimately in good season - and in bad. It is essentially the power of the red, bare soil with its countless seeds of energy hidden lying in wait for rain, that when recognised, binds one forever to the country with the marvel of such dramatic transformation and the abundance that follows. To witness a display of the desert's power, gives a basis to understanding the reverence and enthusiastic anticipation of the women's ceremonial activities, called'awelye'. They celebrate the hardiness and fertility of their bush tucker food resource, and in turn, their own. Emily displays her country in bold and brazen storms of colour, the colours representing the raw, ripe and dry fruit - the bud, the stalk, the scattered seeds - all parts of the life cycle.