About Kudditji. (1938-2017)
 
One of Australia's most respected and collected artists who sadly passed away in January 2017 at the age of 77.
 
"His art spoke for itself and he needed no help by way of reflected glory from his skin sister, Emily.  For international collectors of contemporary art, Kudditji quickly became an obvious addition. They saw mastery in his paint handling technique and appreciated his floating fields of luminous colour.  Whilst many international visitors compared him to the great American abstract impressionist, Mark Rothko, Kudditji was totally unaware of any similarities.  He was just painting his country, his Dreamings, his way". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudditji_Kngwarreye
 
Born around 1928, Kudditji Kngwarreye, the younger brother of the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye, had a traditional bush upbringing in the Utopia region before starting a long career as a stockman and mine worker. An Anmatyerre elder and custodian of many important Dreamings, Kudditji was inspired by the work coming out of Papunya to paint his own Dreamings, telling of the travels and law of the Emu ancestors.
 
Starting in 1986, his precisely dotted Emu Dreaming paintings, featuring ranks of coloured roundels and other 'hieroglyphs' on a chequered or dotted background, became sought after by major galleries in the Northern Territory. Breaking out of this style after some years, Kudditji's work became far looser and more 'abstract'. The demand for his earlier, detailed style, however, moved Kudditji to return to it, and it was only in 2003 that he began to exhibit the extraordinary, saturated colour paintings that have seen his reputation grow nationally and internationally.
 
The newer paintings, in fact, have several styles, and Kudditji has explored size of canvas as well as form in these intense, beautiful works. A sense of immense space can be felt in the "My Country" paintings, where massive blocks of stippled colour are laid alongside each other, sometimes using only two colours, while in other paintings a quilt of juxtaposed colours produces a landscape effect.
 
Kudditji Kngwarreye's works, powerful, bold and striking represent the final stage in Kudditji’s evolution as an artist. His works have progressed from the restrained, meticulously executed Emu Dreaming stories to stunning bold abstracts using bold sweeping brush strokes and striking combination of colours. The works capture the very essence of Kudditji’s country Utopia, Central Australia.
 
Like his famous older sister, Kudditji is a custodian of this country. Although both Emily and her brother developed a more abstract style in the later years, they both remained faithful to their designated Dreaming stories.
 
Kudditji knows this country well. He has travelled across it on foot, as a stockman and as a miner. His works capture the very essence of his traditional country – varying from patchwork of brilliant irregular squares representing various tracts of land to sweeping horizons that reflect the wide flat horizons of the weathered desert landscape.
 
The most recent My Country works of Kudditji Kngwarreye have captured international attention where perhaps abstract indigenous art is more readily accepted. Most recently he was represented at the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen to huge success.