Kudditji Kngwarreye (pronounced goo-beh-chee and called Goob) was a senior man from the Eastern Anmatyerre country of Alhalkere on the Utopia homelands. He was born around 1938 and was the brother of famous Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye. For international collectors of contemporary art, Kudditji quickly became an obvious addition. Collectors saw mastery in his paint handling technique and appreciated his floating fields of luminous color. International visitors compared him to the great American abstract impressionist, Mark Rothko, yet Kudditji was totally unaware of any similarities. He was simply painting his country (his "Dreamings") his way. He died January 23, 2017.

Kudditji began painting around 1986. His highly intuitive and gestural method of painting was not welcomed by galleries, and he was encouraged to paint in the fashionable style of the time, executing works with detailed infill. After seeing Emily catapult on to the Australian and International Art scene, Kudditji resumed his exploration in to the abstract which he continued until he 'put down the brush' in 2015. Kudditji participated in many international exhibitions and became known for his depictions of his Dreamings; their abstract imagery, bold color use and intuitive interplay with space and form cemented his name in the Aboriginal art scene.

But being a ground-breaking contemporary Indigenous Australian artist was just one chapter in this old man's life story. He had a traditional bush upbringing and worked as a stockman and mine worker for many years. He was also a traditional custodian of many important Dreamings, of the land and Men's Business ceremonial sites located in his country at Utopia Station, about 230 km northeast of Alice Springs.

During his younger days Kudditji frequently took the young boys/men hunting emu in these lands, merging tradition with practice as part of their initiation as men. It is the land of this experience that Kudditji painted his 'Emu Dreamings' and his 'My Country' works.

Kudditji's later works evolved into extraordinary juxtaposed color fields, startling in both composition and hue. Harsh or soft and often surprising to the Western eye, his painterly style maps out the creation, his country, and his traditional Dreamings. While his spatial, painterly compositions have a Rothkoesque quality to them, the work of this Anmatyerre elder from the Northern Territory was a a unique Australian voice.

While painting, Kudditji could be heard singing - his way of infusing his works with stories of the land; the ancestors, hunts, travels and the food and water of Anmatyerre country. Kngwarreye's songs will continue to echo through his beautiful artworks, which now hang in galleries, private collections, homes and offices all over the world. His passing is a great loss to the art world and to those people who knew him personally or through his paintings.

Kudditji Kngwarreye's "My Country" represents traditional country around Boundary Bore, the country for which he was a custodian.

Significant throughout this country are the Emu Dreaming sites, where major men’s initiation ceremonies are performed. Emu Dreaming was one of Kudditji’s inherited ancestral totems, and is the inspiration for his art. Visual references to Emu Dreaming, and Men’s Ceremonial Dreamings from Boundary Bore, were the cental themeof Kudditji Kngwarreye's art. He is represented in major national and international collections and gained worldwide recognition for his powerful interpretations of his ancestral Dreamings.

Kudditji Kngwarreye was especially known for his large dynamic paintings, saturated with color and paint, and his considerable creative output helped expand the realm of traditional story-telling as expressed by Central Desert painters. Kudditji’s greatest paintings evoke lyrical images of his country using concentrated color across the spread of Australia's central desert landscape. He used densely applied paint and broad sweeps of color to create images of the intense skies of the desert rainy season and the extreme heat of high summer. A sense of immense space can be felt in the paintings.

DOB: 1938 - 2017

BORN: Lallguora, Utopia, NT

LANGUAGE GROUP: Anmatyerre

COMMUNITY: Utopia, NT

Collections

Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs

Hank Ebes Collection, Melbourne

Macquarie University, NSW

Guilleman and Sordello Collection, France

R. M. Barokh Antiques, Los Angeles, California

Mbantua Gallery Permanent Collection, Alice Springs NT

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2016: Singing Up Country | Kudditji Kngwarreye, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2016: Kudditji Kngwarreye - A master painter thee is only one of him, Mandel Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne

2014: Kudditji Kngwarreye, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2014: Earth + Sky, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane

2013: Kudditji: Landscapes in the Family Tradition, Booker-Lowe Gallery, Houston, Texas USA

2013: Colours of Dreaming | Kudditji Kngwarreye, Mitchell Fine Art, Brisbane

2013: The Master Returns, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2011: Kudditji Kngwarreye, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2011: COLOURFIELD: new paintings, Fireworks gallery, Brisbane

2010: Kudditji Kngwarreye, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2010: Kudditji Kngwarreye, Palya Proper Fine Arts Alice Springs

2009: Kudditji Kngwarreye: Pastels, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2008: My Country, Kudditji Kngwarreye, Central Art Aboriginal Store, Alice Springs

2008: 30 Emu Dreamings, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2008: My Country, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2006: Masterwork, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

2006: My Country, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2006: Two Fields, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane

2005: Waterhole Aboriginal Art, Danks Street, Sydney

2005: New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

2005: Colours in Country, Art Mob, Hobart, Tasmania

2004: My Country, New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

2004: My Country, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2004: Waterhole Aboriginal Art, Sofitel Wentworth Hotel Exhibition, Sydney

2003: New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

1999: New Paintings, Chapel off Chapel, Melbourne

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2017 Gems from the Stockroom, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2016 Spoilt for Choice- a director's choice exhibition, Kate Gwen Gallery, Sydney

2015 Signs and Traces - Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Cultural Institute Zamek, Pozan, Poland

2015 From the Vaults - highlights from the Collectors' Gallery, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2014 Vast Interiors, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2012 The Colourists: Kudditji Kngwarreye and Lorna Napurrula Fencer, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2013 Sky and Desert, Foundation Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture, Switzerland

2010 Utopia: Eastern Anmatyerre Artists, Neo Gallery, Brisbane

2009 Size Matters, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney, NSW

2009 Aboriginal Art, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney

2009 R�ves Aborig�nes, Mus�e Arts et Histoire de Bormes-Les-Mimosas, Bormes-Les-Mimosas, France

2008 From the Air, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane

2008 Black & White: Inspired by Landscape, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney

2006 New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne

2005 Big Country, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs

2005 Fresh from the Central Desert, Canberra Grammar School, Canberra

2004 Two Senior Men, Art Mob Gallery, Tasmania

2004 Australian Exhibition Centre, Chicago

2004 Heartbeat - Living Country, Wenthworth Hotel, Sydney

2004 Spirit of Colour, Depot Gallery, Sydney

2002 The Contemporaries, Contemporary Artspace, Brisbane

2000 Mia Mia, Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melboure

1999 Chapel Off, Chapel Gallery, Melbourne

1992 Tjukurrpa, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Basel, Switzerland

1991 Central Australian Aboriginal Art & Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs

1990 Art Dock, Contemporary Art from Australia, Noumea, New Caledonia.