Kathleen Petyarre

 

Date of Birth: 1940-2018

Kathleen Petyarre is one of seven sisters (including Gloria), all of whom are artists, and is the senior custodian of the arnkerrth (thorny devil) dreaming. She employs a limited palette of colours. There is a secret-sacred, gender-specific dimension to her paintings, which she deliberately obscures by means of an elaborate dot cover. Her works exemplify Kathleen’s discipline as an artist. Each composition is very carefully organized relying as they do on the grid pattern Kathleen maps out in detail before commencing each work. It is the manner in which she has applies layer upon layer of colour to the canvas that gives these works their very refined appearance creating a heightened illusion of three-dimensionality.

Selected exhibitions
1989 Coventry Gallery, Sydney; 1989, 1997, 1998 Tandanya, Adelaide; 1990, 1991 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland; 1990 Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland; 1990 Harvard University, Boston, U.S.A.; 1990, 1999 Art Gallery of N.S.W., Sydney; 1992 Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Sydney; 1993 Moree Plains Art Gallery, Moree; 1994 Australian Embassy, Paris; 1994, 1997 Songlines Gallery, Amsterdam; 1995 Ludwig Forum for international Kunst, Aachen, Germany; 1996 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; 1996 Old Parliament House, Canberra; 1996, 1998, 2000 Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne; 1996, 1998 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; 1996, 1998 Gallery Australis, Adelaide; 1997, 1999 Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Surfers Paradise; 1997 Museum Puri Lukisan, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia; 1997 National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta; 1997, 1998 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; 1997 ‘Dreampower’, Adelaide; 1997 Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery Sydney; 1998 Chapman Gallery, Canberra; 1998 Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA; 1998 Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; 1998 Japingka Gallery, Perth; 1999 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; 2002 Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne; 2002 Gallery Commines, Paris.

Selected collections
National Gallery of Australia; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Museum and Art Galleries of Northern Territory, Darwin; South Australian Museum, Adelaide; Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide; Tandanya, Adelaide; Edith Cowan University, Perth; Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Perth; Barossa Valley Wine and Tourist Association; Artbank, Sydney; Morven estate Collection, Charlottesville, USA; Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA; Levi-Kaplan Collection, Seattle, Washington, USA; Museum Puri Lukisan, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia; Collection de Musee des Arts d’Afrique et d’Oceanie, Paris, France.

Awards
1996 3rd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Commission Art Award, Canberra; 1996 Winner, 13th Telstra Award, Darwin; 1997 Overall Winner of the Visy Board Art Prize, Barossa Vintage Festival Art Show; 1998, Seppelts Contemporary Art Award, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW; 1998, finalist 15th NATSIAA.

Artworks