Literature in our Collection
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Nicholls, Christine und North, Ian: Kathleen Petyarre, Genius of Place, Wakefield Press, Kent Town 2001, ISBN 1862545464

Table of Contents        ¦         Cover Text        ¦         Book Review

Table of Contents

Christine Nicholls: Genius of Place: the Life and Art of Kathleen Petyarre -6-

Gallery -33-

Ian North: The Kindness of Kathleen Petyarre -80-

Glossary, Map and Further Notes -90-

Kathleen Petyarre, Curriculum Vitae -92-

References and Further Reading -95-

Cover Text

Recognised as one of Australia's greatest living artist, Katheleen Petyarre was born around 1940 on Atnangker country in the Utopia region, north-east of Alice Springs in Central Australia. When Petyarre was a young child, before she had met any white people, her paternal grandmother began instructing her in the narrative of her Dreaming Ancestor, Arnkerrth, the Old Woman Mountain Devil of Thorny Devil Lizard. Kathleen Petyarre's finely wrought and visually compelling paintings depict Arnkerrth making her way over sand-dunes and rockholes in the harsh Australian desert, negotiating extremes of temperature and weather conditions. The classical theme of the diminutive, vulnerable but heroic creature triumphing over adversity has seen Petyarre's paintings compared with those of J.M.W. Turner, whose small but heroic sailors struggle valiantly in their apparently flimsy vessels while buffeted by raging seas. At the same time, the power of Kathleen Petyarre's work derives from her faithfulness to her Indigenous traditions and land-based religion. 'Kathleen Petyarre: Genius of Place' provides comprehensive insight into the artist's life and work, while situating her art practice within national and international contemporary art movements. Illustrated by over 60 colour and black and white plates of the artist's work and life, this book is essential reading for those who wish to move beyond superficial understandings of contemporary Indigenous Australian art.