8  SOLD

KATHLEEN PETYARRE (born circa 1940)
‘Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming (After Hailstorm)’
Acrylic on Belgian linen
182 x 182 cm

Petyarre’s artistic subject matter is directly connected to the desert landscape of her childhood, and to her Dreaming Ancestor Arnkerrth (Moloch Horridus), a small lizard known in English as the Mountain or Thorny Devil. It is a small timid agamid lizard that inhabits the desert plains and sand ridges around Atnangker country, changing colour according to its environment, like a true chameleon. Arnkerrth the Mountain Devil propels herself forward in semi-circular fashion, her tiny tracks leaving ‘trademark’ curvilinear indentations on the desert sands. Her refined patterning replicates the idiosyncratic gait of the Mountain Devil, by perfectly capturing the small creature’s characteristic ambulatory motion through the harsh sandy desert. The enormity of the journeys of Arnkerrth can be felt in Petyarre’s paintings, revealing to the viewer an insight into the endless beauty of her desert world.

PROVENANCE
Gallerie Australis, South Australia, painted 2003,
Catalogue number GAKP1103418

Kathleen Petyarre was born in the remote spinifex country of Atnangker, which lies some 275 kilometers (170 miles) north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Central Australia. Kathleen Petyarre belongs to the Anmatyerr clan group and speaks Eastern Anmatyerr with English as a second language. During childhood Kathleen Petyarre travelled around her vast homelands, of some 200 square kilometers with her father, mother, siblings and extended family, according to the seasonal availability of bush foods and water. From
this early age, Petyarre learnt to understand land navigation and acquired the knowledge of the spatial history of her country. Kathleen Petyarre, her daughter Margaret, and her sisters later settled at Iylenty (Mosquito Bore) on Utopia Station and it was during this time that Kathleen Petyarre became one of the key women involved in the successful claim for the freehold title that lead to the 1979 formal hand-over of the Utopia lease back to its traditional
custodians. Kathleen, together with her brothers and sisters have custodial rights of the Arnkerrth Dreaming (Mountain Devil Lizard), together with its associated narrative, which is referenced in all her works.

REPRESENTED
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of South Australia
Museums & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory
University of South Australia Art Museum, Adelaide
Adelaide Festival Centre Trust Collection, Adelaide
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
The Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
The Kluge-Rhue Collection, University of West Virginia, USA
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
The Levi-Kaplan Collection, Seattle, USA
Collection de Musée de Quai Branly, Arts d’Afrique et d’Oceanie, Paris, France
Collection of H. M. Queen Elizabeth II