Kathleen Ngale
Encyclopedia
Kathleen Ngale is a senior Australian Aboriginal artist, born ca. 1930 in the Utopia
region of Central Australia
. Kathleen Ngale belongs to the oldest living generation of Utopia artists and has in the last two decades emerged as one of the greatest Aboriginal artists, having been compared to such eminent figures as Emily Kngwarreye
, Minnie Pwerle
or Kathleen Petyarre
, due both to her senior status and the uncommon quality of her work.
in 1979 and pursued her work in that medium until she, along with many other Aboriginal artists, was introduced in the late 1980s to painting in acrylic colours on canvas. Her work since then has come to be seen as some of the most sophisticated and complex in the Aboriginal art scene. She has been featured in many exhibitions, both in Australia and overseas, and she was a finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award in both 2000 and 2008. Kathleen Ngale is now the senior custodian of the cultural knowledge of her country, Arlparra. Her younger sisters Polly Ngale and Angelina Pwerle Ngale are also accomplished artists.
. Her paintings are made up of numerous layers of superimposed dots, creating a feeling of depth, light and movement. There is virtually as much hidden in these works as there is visible in a surface reading, with many underdotting colour planes shimmering through the top layers in a highly complex interplay. Her subtly dotted underpainting often consists of yellows, reds, purples, greens, over which she then often applies a thick layer of overdotting which almost obscures the underdotting altogether or fuses with it to create a surface of delicate, fragile colour softer than the original underdotting, red and white often fusing into a translucent, fleshy white/pink. The colour is often thickly applied or washed out, but then in the surface of the same canvas the overdotting can in some parts become very sparse, allowing the viewer to see down through the painting's surface into a field of deep or 'negative' space. Sasha Grishin, Sir William Dobell Professor of Art History at the Australian National University
, wrote in 2009: "Although Kathleen Kngale has been painting for over two decades , it is only in recent years that she has been acclaimed as one of the most significant and exciting artists in contemporary Utopia painting, creating memorable and visually dazzling paintings... She is an artist who has created an unique and distinctive stylistic language, one of great visual power and spiritual resonance."
Her works (as well as those of her sister Polly, born ca. 1940) have become sought after in recent years.
Utopia, Northern Territory
Utopia is an Aboriginal homeland formed in November 1978 by the amalgamation of the former Utopia pastoral lease with a tract of unalienated land to its north. It covers an area of 3500 square kilometres, transected by the Sandover River, and lies on a traditional boundary of the Alyawarra and...
region of Central Australia
Central Australia
Central Australia/Alice Springs Region is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. The term Central Australia is used to describe an area centred on Alice Springs in Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Centralia; likewise the people of the area are sometimes called Centralians...
. Kathleen Ngale belongs to the oldest living generation of Utopia artists and has in the last two decades emerged as one of the greatest Aboriginal artists, having been compared to such eminent figures as Emily Kngwarreye
Emily Kngwarreye
Emily Kame Kngwarreye was an Australian Aboriginal artist from the Utopia community in the Northern Territory. She is one of the most prominent and successful artists in the history of contemporary Indigenous Australian art.-Life:Born in 1910, Kngwarreye did not take up painting seriously until...
, Minnie Pwerle
Minnie Pwerle
Minnie Pwerle was an Australian Aboriginal artist...
or Kathleen Petyarre
Kathleen Petyarre
Kathleen Petyarre is an eminent Australian Aboriginal artist, known for her paintings displaying an extremely refined layering technique with intricate dotting. Her art refers directly to her country and her Dreamings, concepts that may be difficult to grasp for the non-Aboriginal viewer...
, due both to her senior status and the uncommon quality of her work.
Life
Kathleen Ngale was born around 1930 at the Camel Camp Station, 250 km north-East of Alice Springs, where she still lives with her extended family. She started working in BatikBatik
Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.Javanese traditional batik, especially from...
in 1979 and pursued her work in that medium until she, along with many other Aboriginal artists, was introduced in the late 1980s to painting in acrylic colours on canvas. Her work since then has come to be seen as some of the most sophisticated and complex in the Aboriginal art scene. She has been featured in many exhibitions, both in Australia and overseas, and she was a finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award in both 2000 and 2008. Kathleen Ngale is now the senior custodian of the cultural knowledge of her country, Arlparra. Her younger sisters Polly Ngale and Angelina Pwerle Ngale are also accomplished artists.
Work
Kathleen Ngale's works are a depiction of her country, Arlparre, and its 'Bush Plum' (anwekety) DreamingDreaming (spirituality)
The Dreaming is a common term within the animist creation narrative of indigenous Australians for a personal, or group, creation and for what may be understood as the "timeless time" of formative creation and perpetual creating....
. Her paintings are made up of numerous layers of superimposed dots, creating a feeling of depth, light and movement. There is virtually as much hidden in these works as there is visible in a surface reading, with many underdotting colour planes shimmering through the top layers in a highly complex interplay. Her subtly dotted underpainting often consists of yellows, reds, purples, greens, over which she then often applies a thick layer of overdotting which almost obscures the underdotting altogether or fuses with it to create a surface of delicate, fragile colour softer than the original underdotting, red and white often fusing into a translucent, fleshy white/pink. The colour is often thickly applied or washed out, but then in the surface of the same canvas the overdotting can in some parts become very sparse, allowing the viewer to see down through the painting's surface into a field of deep or 'negative' space. Sasha Grishin, Sir William Dobell Professor of Art History at the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
, wrote in 2009: "Although Kathleen Kngale has been painting for over two decades , it is only in recent years that she has been acclaimed as one of the most significant and exciting artists in contemporary Utopia painting, creating memorable and visually dazzling paintings... She is an artist who has created an unique and distinctive stylistic language, one of great visual power and spiritual resonance."
Her works (as well as those of her sister Polly, born ca. 1940) have become sought after in recent years.
Selected Exhibitions
- 1992 Modern Art-Ancient Icon - The World Bank, Washington, USA
- 2000 Urapunja artists in Brisbane, Micheal Sourgnes
- 2000 Out of the Desert, Desert Gallery - Sydney
- 2001 Utopia a Special Painting Place - Bett Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
- 2002 Two sisters, Kathleen and Polly, Lorraine Diggins, Melbourne
- 2002 Australian Modern, Fondazione Mudima, Milan, Italy
- 2004-2006 ArtParis International Contemporary Art Fair, Grand Palais, Paris
- 2005 October Gallery, London
- 2006 Galerie Clément, Vevey, Switzerland
- 2006 Lorraine Diggins exhibition, London
- 2006 Senior Women of Utopia, GalleryG, Brisbane
- 2007 Patterns of Power, art from the Eastern Desert, Simmer on the Bay Gallery, Sydney
- 2008 Emily Kngwarreye and Her Legacy, Tokyo, Japan
- 2008 Galerie Brenart, 221 Avenue Louise, Bruxelles (Brussels), Belgium (31 January-8 March 2008)
Selected Collections
- National Gallery of AustraliaNational Gallery of AustraliaThe National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
- National Gallery of VictoriaNational Gallery of VictoriaThe National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
, Melbourne - Thomas Vroom Collection, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Holmas a Court Collection, Perth