Theo Kuijpers / Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Bush Yam Dreaming

1994

synthetic polymer, paint on canvas

138 x 263,5 cm

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Earth’s Creation

1994

synthetic polymer, paint on canvas

Emily Kame Kngwarreye at work

Whenever Emily was asked to explain her paintings, regardless of whether the images were a shimmering veil of dots, a field of ‘dump dump’ dots, raw stripes seared across the surface or elegant black lines, her answer was always the same:

Whole lot, that’s whole lot, Awelye (my Dreaming), Arlatyeye (pencil yam), Arkerrthe (mountain devil lizard), Ntange (grass seed), Tingu (Dreamtime pup), Ankerre (emu), Intekwe (favourite food of emus, a small plant), Atnwerle (green bean), and Kame (yam seed). That’s what I paint, whole lot.

In the last eight to nine years of her life Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910-1996) produced over 3000 paintings, an average of about one painting per day. Before that she did batik, but washing out batikwax became too heavy, so she just started painting.

She now belongs to the absolute top of contemporary Australian art.

(source: National Museum of Australia)

'It is the scrub, its informality, bush tracks, stumps, fences, the litter of bark and leaves and its transformation by flood and fire, that had attracted Theo Kuijpers to the Australian landscape. It's not unusual for an Australian artist to respond to such elements in landscape, but  it is rare for an artist from Holland. The Australian environment is certainly very different to that in and around Eindhoven in the Netherlands, where Theo Kuijpers lives all his life and where he has a studio. Nevertheless, as the son of a farmer, it is landscape and farming detritus that often strikes the deepest chord in him.

Characteristic of this art is the landscape-like materiality, the incorporation off all manner of discarded materials in past of paint-denim trousers, embroidered tablecloths, twigs, rope or string. Tarpaulins and old sails are also favourite materials.'

(from a small catalogue by Hendrik Kolenberg, former curator of Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, accompanying an exhibition in Kingstreet Gallery on William, Sydney)

Theo Kuijpers

Song after Bushfire   

2011

80 x 100 cm   

oil, collage on canvas

(photo Peter Cox)

Theo Kuijpers (NL)

Night Song

2012

200 x 160 cm

acrylic, oil, collage on canvas

(photo Peter Cox)

www.theo-kuijpers.nl