Emily Kame Kngwarreye | Earth's Creation (encore)

Emily Kame Kngwarreye was born around 1910, a time when the Aboriginal people were not considered full citizens in their own country. Earth’s Creation is an absolutely massive painting about 9 feet tall and 20 feet wide. She painted it in 1994 when she was around 84 years old. Most biographies will say that she only painted for the last 8 years of her life, but really, she was only painting for Western audiences for that period. She spent her life learning, practicing, and creating in line with the Aboriginal customs.

Earth’s Creation is an absolutely massive piece she created in 1994. Kngwarreye was about 84 years old when she painted it. It shows an evolution in her style from the more earth toned traditional pieces she painted as she first began to work on canvas. In this piece we see rich blues, yellows, and greens referencing the lush “green times” that follow periods of heavy rain. She was moving beyond the clay and ochre pigments but still creating work deeply rooted in her connection to the land and nature. This painting is about 9 feet tall and 20 feet wide and when it went up for auction in 2007, it sold for an equally large price of just over $1 million. It set a record for the highest price of a work by an aboriginal artist and the highest price for an Australian female painter. A decade later it sold for over $2 million once again setting the record for the highest price by an Australian female painter.

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