Earth's Creation facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Earth's Creation |
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| Artist | Emily Kame Kngwarreye |
| Year | 1994 |
| Medium | Acrylic paint on canvas |
| Dimensions | 275.0 cm × 632.0 cm (108.3 in × 248.8 in) |
| Location | National Museum of Australia, Canberra |
Earth's Creation is a very famous painting by the Australian Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye. She painted it in 1994 in a place called Utopia, Northern Territory. This area is in central Australia, north-east of Alice Springs.
About the Artist and Her Art
Emily Kame Kngwarreye was an important Anmatyerre woman and artist. She only started painting when she was about 80 years old! Even so, in the next eight years, she created more than 3,000 paintings. That's like painting one artwork almost every day.
Earth's Creation is known for its bright, strong colours. It's seen as one of her best works. Emily herself said it showed "the whole lot... everything" – meaning the creation of the Earth. The painting has swirling blues, greens, and yellows. These colours remind her of the "green time" in her home country, Alhalkere. This is when the desert bursts with new life after the rains.
Emily used a special way of painting called the "dump dot" technique. She would use her brush to press or "dump" the Acrylic paint onto the canvas. This created many layers of colour and made the painting look like it was moving.
Because Earth's Creation is so big, Emily painted it on four separate pieces of canvas. These pieces were sewn together while she was painting. Later, they were stretched individually to be displayed.
Many art experts around the world think Emily's paintings are as amazing as those by famous artists like Claude Monet and abstract artists such as Jackson Pollock. Some even say Earth's Creation is more important for Australia than Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles. This is because Emily painted it in the Australian desert, without any formal art training.
Where the Painting Has Been Seen
After being owned by a private collector, Earth's Creation was bought at an auction in Sydney in 2007. It sold for over a million dollars! At that time, it was the most expensive Aboriginal artwork ever sold. It was also the highest price paid for a painting by an Australian female artist.
The National Museum of Australia asked to borrow the painting. So, after it was bought, Earth's Creation went on a tour. It was shown in Tokyo and Osaka in Japan in 2007. Then, it was displayed at the National Museum in Canberra in 2008. It also went to the Great Hall of Parliament House in Darwin and to Alice Springs, where it had never been shown publicly before.
In 2015, the painting was part of a big art show called the 56th Venice Biennale in Italy. This show was called "All the World’s Futures."
