Emily Kam Kngwarray
Given this art
would be new to a lot of the audience who were viewing it I felt it could have
been explained more clearly. It is only from looking at the website now that I
realise the artist didn’t start producing art until her 70s and I never found a
good explanation of her technique. The descriptions of the belief system behind
the works and the concept of ‘Dreamers’ were confusing and relied on an
acceptance of strange ideas rather than clear explanation.
Having said that
I found the works themselves tranquil a
nd beautiful. They mainly consisted of
dots of paint obscuring an image below. Some felt like maps. I loved the
intense colours and how they reacted together. Inevitably to a European eye
they make you think of Pointillism not helped by the fact there is a
Pointillist show at the National Gallery at the moment.
The paintings
were shown with her Batik work which gave an ethereal feel but led you to the
conclusion of the work being about pattern rather than image.
I liked some later work in which she used lines of paint which represent dance.
Closed 11 January 2026
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