Kathleen Petyarre facts for kids

Kathleen Petyarre (born Kweyetwemp Petyarre; around 1940 – 24 November 2018) was a famous Aboriginal artist from Australia. Her art often showed her deep connection to her land and her people's traditional stories, called Dreamings.

Many people have compared Kathleen Petyarre's paintings to those of well-known abstract artists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. She won several awards for her unique art. Her artworks are very popular and are often sought after at art auctions. Kathleen Petyarre passed away on November 24, 2018, in Alice Springs, Australia.

About Kathleen Petyarre

Kathleen Petyarre was born in a place called Atnangkere. This was an important water source for Aboriginal people. It is located on the edge of Utopia Station. This area is about 240 kilometers (150 miles) northeast of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory.

She belonged to the Alyawarre and Eastern Anmatyerre language groups. She spoke Eastern Anmatyerre as her first language. English was her second language. Kathleen was the niece of another very important Aboriginal artist, Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Several of Kathleen's sisters were also famous artists. These included Gloria, Violet, Myrtle, and Jeanna Petyarre. Kathleen, along with her daughter Margaret and her sisters, lived at Iylenty (Mosquito Bore). This place was on Utopia Station, close to where she was born.

Kathleen Petyarre first learned about batik art. Batik is a method of dyeing fabric using wax. She learned this during a visit to Wollongong, New South Wales. This was at a place where artists lived and worked together. She started making her own batik art in 1977. She received help and encouragement from Jenny Green, a language expert. Kathleen continued to create batik artworks with other women at Utopia. This continued until the late 1980s.

She then started to have allergic reactions to the chemicals used in batik. Because of this, she began to paint with acrylic paints on canvas. This is when she developed her special painting style.

Kathleen Petyarre's Art Style

Kathleen Petyarre's painting method was very unique. She would apply many very tiny dots of thin acrylic paint onto the canvas. This style reminded people of the traditional Aboriginal custom of ceremonial body painting.

She carefully created abstract landscapes. When you looked closely, these paintings showed amazing depth. The dots in her paintings represented many things. They could show flowers, spinifex plants, or even moving clouds of sand or hail. Sometimes they showed bush seeds. Different shapes and colors in her art showed geographical features. These included sand-hills, rivers, and rockholes. Her art was described as showing both tiny details and huge landscapes at the same time.

Most of Kathleen Petyarre's paintings told the stories of her Dreaming Ancestor. This was Arnkerrth, the Old Woman Mountain Devil. These paintings showed the amazing land navigation skills of Aboriginal people. She often painted from an aerial view, like looking down from above. This is a common style in her region's artworks. She used this view to recreate landscapes she remembered. She also used it to express her Dreamings. She said her paintings were "like looking down on my country during the hot time, when the country changes colour... I love to make the painting like it’s moving, travelling, but it’s still our body painting, still our ceremony."

Around 2003–2004, Kathleen Petyarre's style changed. Her paintings became bolder. She started using groups of larger dots and stronger lines. These were mixed with the very fine textures she was known for. Some people thought this new style was less refined. However, others saw it as a natural step in her artistic journey. They believed it was a more powerful and dramatic way to express herself. It was seen as "perhaps more abstract, certainly more modern in its technicality and presentation."

Kathleen Petyarre's Reputation

Kathleen Petyarre became known around the world after an exhibition. It was called Aboriginal Art from Utopia. This show was held at the Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in Melbourne on October 31, 1989. For several years after this, she was not widely known. But in 1996, she surprised the art world. Her first solo exhibition, Kathleen Petyarre: Storm in Atnangkere Country, sold out completely. This show was at Melbourne's Alcaston House Gallery.

Her strong reputation as one of Australia's most original Indigenous artists grew. She was regularly included in exhibitions at famous international museums and galleries. A book about her art, Genius of Place, was published in 2001. This book came out with a solo exhibition of her works. That show was at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney. Her paintings are now in public and private collections all over the world. Her work was chosen for the permanent collection of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. Only a few Aboriginal artists have their work there.

Awards and Recognition

Kathleen Petyarre received many important awards for her art:

• 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, Seppelt Contemporary Art Awards 1998 – Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia
• 1998 Winner, People's Choice Award, Seppelt Contemporary Art Awards 1998, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Exhibitions of Her Work

Solo Exhibitions

• 2008 Kathleen Petyarre, Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
• 2004 Old Woman alex award , Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
• 2003 Ilyenty – Mosquito Bore, Recent Paintings, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
• 2001 Genius of Place: The Work of Kathleen Petyarre, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia
• 2000 Landscape, Truth and Beauty – Recent Paintings by Kathleen Petyarre, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
• 1999 Recent Painting by Kathleen Petyarre, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney, Australia
• 1998 Arnkerrthe – My Dreaming, Alcaston House Gallery, Melbourne Australia
• 1996 Kathleen Petyarre: Storm in Aknangkerre Country, Alcaston House Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Selected Group Exhibitions

Major Art Collections

Kathleen Petyarre's artworks are held in many important collections around the world: