Kudditji Kngwarreye / My Country (9B)

c. 1928 – 2017

Kuddtji Kngwarreye was one of Australia’s leading Aboriginal artists. He was born c.1928 and passed away at approx. 88 years of age in early 2017 after a long illness. He commenced painting in the early eighties, along with the best of the original Papunya Tula Artists. He was Traditional Custodian of his country situated approximately 230kms north east of Alice Springs.

He is the brother of renowned artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Like many of his contemporaries, before commencing his painting career he worked on the stations as a stockman and in the gold mines dotted around his country.

Kudditji has been represented in major International exhibitions and initially gained world wide recognition for his traditional depictions of his Dreamings, featuring the travels and Law of his Emu Ancestors. When he commenced painting around 1986, he was encouraged by Geoffrey Bardon and others to paint in the fashionable grass roots style of precisely executed works with detailed infill. This style of work was applauded by Major Galleries and Collectors. Some years later, he deviated from this traditional style, and Kudditji’s works emerged as abstract images, with broad strokes and a combination of vivid, bold colours. It is said that his “new” style was not favoured by the Galleries and Art Curators, and he returned to his original recognised Traditional style of work.

It is not clear whether Kudditji or his sister Emily first painted this abstract style; however, the works of Emily were promoted and applauded as a new direction for modern Aboriginal Art. In 2002 Kudditji returned to the saturated colour paintings executed with heavily loaded brush and this time his works were recognised by astute collectors and galleries throughout Australia and Internationally.

Kudditji painted his Country in minimal landscape imaging, with beautiful colour co-ordination sometimes designed to give an impression of immense space with huge blocks of colours, and often merely closely blended duel colours in soft autumn toning.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2003
– New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

2004
– My Country, Japingka Gallery, Perth
– My Country, New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
– Waterhole Aboriginal Art, Sofitel Wentworth Hotel Exhibition, Sydney

2005
– Colours in Country, Art Mob, Hobart, Tasmania
– New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
– Waterhole Aboriginal Art, Danks Street, Sydney

2006
– New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
– My Country, Japingka Gallery, Perth

Selected Group Exhibitions

1990
– Art Dock, Contemporary Art from Australia, Noumea, New Caledonia

1991
– Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs

1992
– Tjukurrpa, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Basel, Switzerland

2002
– The Contemporaries, Contemporary Artspace, Brisbane

2004
– Two Senior Men, Art Mob Gallery, Tasmania
– Australian Exhibition Centre, Chicago
– Heartbeat – Living Country, Wentworth Hotel, Sydney
– Spirit of Colour, Depot Gallery, Sydney

2005
– Big Country, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
– Fresh from the Central Desert, Canberra Grammar School, Canberra

Selected Collections
– Hank Ebes Collection, Melbourne
– Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs

Kudditji is custodian of his country situated approximately 230kms north east of Alice Springs. He uses a heavily loaded paint brush to sweep broadly across the canvas in stages, similar to the western landscape plane, these paintings are romantic images of his country, accentuating the colour and form of the landscape including the depth of the sky in the raining season and in the summer heat, desert sunrise and sunset.

A sense of immense space can be felt in the “My Country” paintings, where blocks of stippled colour are laid alongside each other, sometimes using only two colours, while in other paintings a multitude of colours produces a landscape effect.