Kathleen Petyarre

Biography

Kathleen Petyarre
(around 1940, Utopia, Australia)

Kathleen Petyarre is born around 1940. She is the keeper of the site Atnangker, site of the Dream of the Diabolical Old Lady from the Mountains (Aknkerrth, or of the Diabolical Lizard of the Mountains) that is the main source of her works. In 1996, she received the 13th Telstra National Aboriginal art Award that is to say the most prestigious artistic price for aboriginal artists, with the painting ?Storm in Atnangkere Country II?. 

From 1998, she travelled in USA, Indonesia, India, Scotland, Ireland and New Zealand. Richard Kelton who bought some of her works for his famous foundation invited her in Los Angeles. Kathleen?s works are now researched by numerous international museums as the Quai Branly, the Essl Museum in Vienna or the collection Thomas Vroom, in Amsterdam.

The magnificent works of Kathleen summarise spatial and spiritual knowledge but transcend the only Aboriginal vision to lead to a new visual language. Dots represent seeds blown by the wind that mass together on the top of dunes or in rivulets.

Exhibitions selected

Collections :

Quai Branly Museum, Paris
Musée des Confluences, Lyon
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Collection of HM Queen Elizabeth II
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaïde
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaïde
Fondation Kelton, Los Angeles
Kluge Ruhe Coll, Virginie
USA, ATSIC Coll, Adelaïde
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Museum Puri Lukisan, Bali, Indonesia
Riddoch regional Art Gallery, Australia
University of South Australia Art Museum, Adelaïde
Thomas Vroom Collection, Amsterdam
Edith Cowan University, Perth
Peabody Essex Anthropology Museum, Harvard, USA
Samlung Essl, Vienna
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth