Photo: tate.org.ukTate Modern will be celebrating the work of Australian artist Emily Kam Kngwarray, whose powerful works reflected her lived experience as a senior Anmatyerre woman from the Utopia region.
Photo: National Gallery of Australia/tate.org.ukIncredibly - despite being heralded as one of Australia's greatest-ever artists - it wasn't until her late 70s that Kngwarray was introduced to acrylic paint and took up painting in earnest. She spent the remaining eight years of her life creating over 3,000 canvases (roughly one a day) encapsulating all the wisdom that she had gained throughout her life.
Photo: National Gallery of Australia/tate.org.ukThe spiritual engagement that she had with her homeland was translated into monumental paintings that captured the majestic scope of her ancestral heritage, and helped to raise awareness of Australian indigenous art. Her work has often been compared stylistically to Western abstract art - and artists like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko - but also to Eastern calligraphy with its thick white lines and bold backgrounds.
Photo: National Gallery of Australia/tate.org.ukCreated in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia, the exhibition will include a selection of textiles, paintings, films and audio works - some of which explore the ongoing tensions around land rights and colonial legacies - and will be the first large-scale presentation of her work ever held in Europe.
