Kathleen Petyarre
Encyclopedia
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 Dreaming
s, concepts that may be difficult to grasp for the non-Aboriginal viewer. However, the vastness of the country can be clearly felt in the landscapes of Petyarre's paintings, which 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. They have been described as: "magisterial works that can be likened to symphonic compositions" (Hood Museum of Art
, Dartmouth College
, New Hampshire, USA). Petyarre's painstaking and virtuosic method of applying countless dots with kebab sticks of various sizes means she typically spends many days, sometimes weeks, on one canvas and has thus avoided the dangers of overproduction, widespread in Aboriginal art.
for Aboriginal people on the western boundary of Utopia Station, 150 miles north-east of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory
. She belongs to the Alyawarre
/Eastern Anmatyerre
clan and speaks Eastern Anmatyerre, with English as her second language. Kathleen, with her daughter Margaret and her sisters, settled at Iylenty (Mosquito Bore) at Utopia Station, near her birthplace. She started working in batik
in 1977 when an adult education instructor, Jenny Green, arrived in Utopia and organised batik workshops. Kathleen Petyarre lives at Utopia Station to this day, but now also spends part of the year at her residence in Adelaide
.
In 1996 she was the winner of the 13th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Controversy arose in 1997 when Petyarre's estranged partner of ten years, Ray Beamish, claimed that he had had a hand in the execution of the winning painting. This controversy, which shook the Aboriginal art market at the time, resulted in much stricter emphasis being put on the documentation of authorship in Aboriginal paintings. Her name was eventually cleared, and she retained her award.
Her considerable reputation as one of the most original indigenous artists has since been confirmed nationally and internationally by her regular inclusion in exhibitions at the most reputed museums and galleries. A book about her art, ' 'Genius of Place' ', was published in 2001 in conjunction with a solo exhibition of her works at the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Sydney
, and her paintings can be found in public and private collections all over the world. Her work has been selected, along with just a handful of Aboriginal artists, for inclusion in the permanent collection of the new Musée du quai Branly
in Paris
.
The last few years, from about 2003-2004 onwards, have seen a bolder style emerge, with clusters of larger dots and stronger lines alongside the very fine textures for which the artist is known. While this style has been decried in some quarters as being less refined, it has also been hailed as being a logical artistic development towards a more powerful and dramatic mode of expression, "perhaps more abstract, certainly more modern in its technicality and presentation".
Kathleen Petyarre is one of the most sought-after living Aboriginal artists. She has been repeatedly nominated by the influential journal Australian Art Collector as being among 'the 50 most collectable artists in Australia'. She has several sisters who are also well-known artists, among them Gloria
, Violet, Myrtle and Jeannie Petyarre. Kathleen's works consistently show the highest degree of innovation, and are in great demand and likely to fetch the highest prices at auction.
2. Utopia Women's Paintings: The First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project 1989, Anne Brody, Catalogue No.7
3. Utopia - A Picture Story, 88 Silks batiks from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, 1990, Anne Brody, pp. 50, 51, 34
4. The Art of Utopia: A New Direction in Contemporary Aboriginal Art, 1991 Michael Boulter, plate 19, pp. 83, plate 53, pp. 157
5. Dreamings of the Desert, Art Gallery of South Australia, 1996, pp. 111
6. Dreampower, Art of Contemporary Aboriginal Australia, 1997, David Cossey, Museum Art International, pp. 16 & 17
7. Expanse: Aboriginalities, spatialities and the politics of ecstasy, an exhibition by Ian North. Art Museum University of South Australia, 1998, pp. 3, 5, 6, 8, 12, 22, 23
8. Raiki Wara, Long Cloth from Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait, Judith Ryan, National Gallery of Victoria
, 1998
9. Art Monthly: Kathleen Petyarre and the Heroic Odyssey of Arnekerrth, pp 7 – 9, October 1998, Number 114
10. Treasures, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, pp. 145, 182. 1998
11. Seppelt Contemporary Art Awards MCA 1998 Catalogue, pp. 14–18, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW
12. Aboriginal Art, Howard Morphy, Arts & Ideas, Phaidon Press Limited, 1998, London, UK. pp. 309, 310, 442
13. The Times Higher Education Supplement, London, UK. 3 March 1998, pg. 30, 31
14. Telstra, 15th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Catalogue, 1998, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, pg. 4, 38,39
15. Recent Paintings by Kathleen Petyarre, catalogue, 1999, Gallerie Australis, Adelaide, South Australia
16. Karra, a project of the Telstra Festival 2000 presented by the Visual Art Department, Adelaide Festival Centre, catalogue, 2000, pp., 18, 19, 27,30 31
17. The Return of Beauty, Editor, Margot Osborne, Jam Factory Contemporary Craft & Design, Adelaide, South Australia, pp., 9,22,23,28,29,30
18. Beyond The Pale, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art 2000, Art Gallery of South Australia, curated by Brenda L. Croft, catalogue, Adelaide, 2000, pp., 14,65 - 69, 99, 105, 112
19. Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia, Vol., 32 No's., 1 & 2. pp. 1 – 32
20. Across – An exhibition of indigenous Art and Culture, ANU Canberra School of Art Gallery, curated by Doreen Mellor, catalogue published ANU Canberra School of Art Gallery, 2000, pp. 3,4,11
21. Spiritualidad y arte Aborigen Australiano, Comuidad de Madrid, Consejeria De Cultura, Madrid, Spain, 2001
22. Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art & Culture, ed. Klienert & Neale, 2000, pp. 672 – 673, pl. 259
23. Genius of Place, The Work of Kathleen Petyarre, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, author Christine Nicholls
24. Genius of Place, Kathleen Petyarre, monograph, published Wakefield Press, 2001, Essays by Christine Nicholls, Prof. Ian North
25. Sisters/Yakkananna, Kahui Mareikura Exhibition, Tandanya, Adelaide, South Australia, 3 March – 28 April 2002, published by National Aboriginal Cultural Institute – Tandanya, page 8,16
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
artist, known for her paintings displaying an extremely refined layering technique with intricate dotting. Her art refers directly to her country and her Dreaming
Dreaming (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....
s, concepts that may be difficult to grasp for the non-Aboriginal viewer. However, the vastness of the country can be clearly felt in the landscapes of Petyarre's paintings, which have occasionally been compared to the works of American Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
and Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
, and even to those of J.M.W. Turner. They have been described as: "magisterial works that can be likened to symphonic compositions" (Hood Museum of Art
Hood Museum of Art
The Hood Museum of Art is a museum in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Dating back to 1772, the museum is owned and operated by Dartmouth College and is connected to the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The current building, designed by Charles Willard Moore and Chad Flloyd, opened in the fall of 1985. It...
, Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, New Hampshire, USA). Petyarre's painstaking and virtuosic method of applying countless dots with kebab sticks of various sizes means she typically spends many days, sometimes weeks, on one canvas and has thus avoided the dangers of overproduction, widespread in Aboriginal art.
Background
Kathleen Petyarre was born at Atnangkere, an important water soakageSoakage
A soakage, or soak, is a source of water in Australian deserts.It is called thus because the water generally seeps into the sand, and is stored below, sometimes as part of an ephemeral river or creek system.-Aboriginal water source:...
for Aboriginal people on the western boundary of Utopia Station, 150 miles north-east of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
. She belongs to the Alyawarre
Alyawarre
Alyawarre are an Indigenous Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory.In 1980 they lodged a land claim with the Wakaya people, which was handed back to them on 22 October 1992. The size of the land was 2065 km²....
/Eastern Anmatyerre
Anmatyerre
Anmatyerr, are an Indigenous Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. They are from an area near Arnka , Arwerlt Atwaty Anmatyerr, are an Indigenous Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. They are from an area near Arnka (Mount Leichhardt),...
clan and speaks Eastern Anmatyerre, with English as her second language. Kathleen, with her daughter Margaret and her sisters, settled at Iylenty (Mosquito Bore) at Utopia Station, near her birthplace. She started working in batik
Batik
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 1977 when an adult education instructor, Jenny Green, arrived in Utopia and organised batik workshops. Kathleen Petyarre lives at Utopia Station to this day, but now also spends part of the year at her residence in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
.
In 1996 she was the winner of the 13th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Controversy arose in 1997 when Petyarre's estranged partner of ten years, Ray Beamish, claimed that he had had a hand in the execution of the winning painting. This controversy, which shook the Aboriginal art market at the time, resulted in much stricter emphasis being put on the documentation of authorship in Aboriginal paintings. Her name was eventually cleared, and she retained her award.
Her considerable reputation as one of the most original indigenous artists has since been confirmed nationally and internationally by her regular inclusion in exhibitions at the most reputed museums and galleries. A book about her art, ' 'Genius of Place' ', was published in 2001 in conjunction with a solo exhibition of her works at the Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia is an Australian museum solely dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting and collecting contemporary art, both from across Australia and around the world...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, and her paintings can be found in public and private collections all over the world. Her work has been selected, along with just a handful of Aboriginal artists, for inclusion in the permanent collection of the new Musée du quai Branly
Musée du quai Branly
thumb|225px|Musée du quai BranlyThe Musée du quai Branly , known in English as the Quai Branly Museum, nicknamed MQB, is a museum in Paris, France that features indigenous art, cultures and civilizations from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The museum is located at 37, quai Branly -...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
The last few years, from about 2003-2004 onwards, have seen a bolder style emerge, with clusters of larger dots and stronger lines alongside the very fine textures for which the artist is known. While this style has been decried in some quarters as being less refined, it has also been hailed as being a logical artistic development towards a more powerful and dramatic mode of expression, "perhaps more abstract, certainly more modern in its technicality and presentation".
Kathleen Petyarre is one of the most sought-after living Aboriginal artists. She has been repeatedly nominated by the influential journal Australian Art Collector as being among 'the 50 most collectable artists in Australia'. She has several sisters who are also well-known artists, among them Gloria
Gloria Petyarre
Gloria Petyarre is an Australian Aboriginal artist from the Anmatyerre community, just north of Alice Springs...
, Violet, Myrtle and Jeannie Petyarre. Kathleen's works consistently show the highest degree of innovation, and are in great demand and likely to fetch the highest prices at auction.
Awards
- 1996 Overall Winner of the Telstra 13th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT, Australia.
- 1997 Overall Winner of the Visy Board Art Prize, the Barossa Vintage Festival Art Show, Nurioopta SA, Australia.
- 1998 Finalist, 1998 Seppelts Contemporary Art Award - Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW Australia.
- 1998 Winner, People's Choice Award, 1998 Seppelts Contemporary Art Award, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Selected exhibitions
- 1991 Royal Hibernian AcademyRoyal Hibernian AcademyThe Royal Hibernian Academy is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823.-History:The RHA was founded as the result of 30 Irish artists petitioning the government for a charter of incorporation...
, Dublin, Ireland - 1995 Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
- 1998 Arnkerrthe - My Dreaming, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne VIC, Australia, 24 July - 15 August
- 1999 Recent Paintings by Kathleen Petyarre, Coo-ee Gallery, Mary Place, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 4–21 November
- 2000 Kathleen Petyarre, Retrospective Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- 2000 New Directions in Contemporary Aboriginal Painting, Songlines Gallery, San Francisco CA, USA
- 2001 Genius of Place. The work of Kathleen Petyarre. Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney NSW, Australia
- 2002 Gallerie Commines, Paris, France
- 2006 Galerie Clément, Vevey, Switzerland
- 2006 Hood Museum of ArtHood Museum of ArtThe Hood Museum of Art is a museum in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Dating back to 1772, the museum is owned and operated by Dartmouth College and is connected to the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The current building, designed by Charles Willard Moore and Chad Flloyd, opened in the fall of 1985. It...
, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA - 2006 National Museum of Women in the ArtsNational Museum of Women in the ArtsThe National Museum of Women in the Arts , located in Washington, D.C. is the only museum solely dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay...
, Washington DC, USA - 2006 Prism - Contemporary Australian Art at the Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
- 2007 Galerie Rigassi, Bern, Switzerland
- 2007 Gallery Anthony Curtis, Boston MA, USA
Major collections
- Holmes a CourtJanet Holmes à CourtJanet Holmes à Court, AC, HFAIB is an Australian businesswoman, and one of Australia's wealthiest women. She is the Chairman of one of Australia's largest private companies, Heytesbury Pty Ltd, having turned around its fortunes after the death of her husband Robert Holmes à Court in 1990...
Collection - Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie, Quai Branly, Paris, France
- Musée des ConfluencesMusée des ConfluencesThe Musée des Confluences is a museum under construction in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, . It is located at the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône and forms part of a large redevelopment project of the Confluence quarter...
, Lyon, France - Kunsthaus - Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Austria
- Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- The Vroom Collection, The Netherlands
- Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
(Peabody-Essex Anthropology and Ethnology Museum), Salem, Massachusetts, USA - Levi-Kaplan Collection, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Kluge-Rhue Collection, University of West Virginia VA, USA
- Museum Puri LukisanMuseum Puri LukisanThe Puri Lukisan Museum is the oldest art museum in Ubud, Bali specializing in modern traditional Balinese paintings and wood carvings. The Museum is located in Ubud, Bali – Indonesia...
, Ubud, Indonesia - National Gallery of Australia , Canberra ACT, Australia
- Art Gallery of New South WalesArt Gallery of New South WalesThe Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
, Sydney NSW, Australia - Art Gallery of South AustraliaArt Gallery of South AustraliaThe Art Gallery of South Australia , located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide, is the premier visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of over 35,000 works of art, making it, after the National Gallery of Victoria, the largest state...
, Adelaide SA, Australia - The Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth WA, Australia
- The Museum & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin NT, Australia
- Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide SA, Australia
- A.T.S.I.C. Collection, Adelaide SA, Australia
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne VIC, Australia
- University of South Australia Art Museum, Adelaide SA, Australia
- Edith Cowan UniversityEdith Cowan UniversityEdith Cowan University is located in Perth, Western Australia. It was named after the first woman to be elected to an Australian Parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Australian university named after a woman....
, Perth WA, Australia
Sources
1. Brody, Ann, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, 1990, Ann Brody, Plate 45, pp. 672. Utopia Women's Paintings: The First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project 1989, Anne Brody, Catalogue No.7
3. Utopia - A Picture Story, 88 Silks batiks from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, 1990, Anne Brody, pp. 50, 51, 34
4. The Art of Utopia: A New Direction in Contemporary Aboriginal Art, 1991 Michael Boulter, plate 19, pp. 83, plate 53, pp. 157
5. Dreamings of the Desert, Art Gallery of South Australia, 1996, pp. 111
6. Dreampower, Art of Contemporary Aboriginal Australia, 1997, David Cossey, Museum Art International, pp. 16 & 17
7. Expanse: Aboriginalities, spatialities and the politics of ecstasy, an exhibition by Ian North. Art Museum University of South Australia, 1998, pp. 3, 5, 6, 8, 12, 22, 23
8. Raiki Wara, Long Cloth from Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait, Judith Ryan, National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The 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...
, 1998
9. Art Monthly: Kathleen Petyarre and the Heroic Odyssey of Arnekerrth, pp 7 – 9, October 1998, Number 114
10. Treasures, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, pp. 145, 182. 1998
11. Seppelt Contemporary Art Awards MCA 1998 Catalogue, pp. 14–18, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW
12. Aboriginal Art, Howard Morphy, Arts & Ideas, Phaidon Press Limited, 1998, London, UK. pp. 309, 310, 442
13. The Times Higher Education Supplement, London, UK. 3 March 1998, pg. 30, 31
14. Telstra, 15th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Catalogue, 1998, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, pg. 4, 38,39
15. Recent Paintings by Kathleen Petyarre, catalogue, 1999, Gallerie Australis, Adelaide, South Australia
16. Karra, a project of the Telstra Festival 2000 presented by the Visual Art Department, Adelaide Festival Centre, catalogue, 2000, pp., 18, 19, 27,30 31
17. The Return of Beauty, Editor, Margot Osborne, Jam Factory Contemporary Craft & Design, Adelaide, South Australia, pp., 9,22,23,28,29,30
18. Beyond The Pale, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art 2000, Art Gallery of South Australia, curated by Brenda L. Croft, catalogue, Adelaide, 2000, pp., 14,65 - 69, 99, 105, 112
19. Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia, Vol., 32 No's., 1 & 2. pp. 1 – 32
20. Across – An exhibition of indigenous Art and Culture, ANU Canberra School of Art Gallery, curated by Doreen Mellor, catalogue published ANU Canberra School of Art Gallery, 2000, pp. 3,4,11
21. Spiritualidad y arte Aborigen Australiano, Comuidad de Madrid, Consejeria De Cultura, Madrid, Spain, 2001
22. Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art & Culture, ed. Klienert & Neale, 2000, pp. 672 – 673, pl. 259
23. Genius of Place, The Work of Kathleen Petyarre, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, author Christine Nicholls
24. Genius of Place, Kathleen Petyarre, monograph, published Wakefield Press, 2001, Essays by Christine Nicholls, Prof. Ian North
25. Sisters/Yakkananna, Kahui Mareikura Exhibition, Tandanya, Adelaide, South Australia, 3 March – 28 April 2002, published by National Aboriginal Cultural Institute – Tandanya, page 8,16
External links
- Selection of paintings by Kathleen and two of her sisters, held by the Art Gallery of South Australia.