"Every time I talk about him, I have a smile on my face. Every time I look at his art in my home, I smile." - Artist Sarrita King, September 2014
Kudditji Kngwarreye is one of the first established male artists from Utopia and is known for his large dynamic paintings, saturated with colour and paint. He was one of the elders of the Anmatyerre language group and an important custodian of many Dreamings, which are the significant sacred stories of the Australian First Nations peoples.
Kudditji mixed his colours directly onto the canvas, layering his paint into a patchwork formation. Over time, he began to experiment with acrylic paint, going beyond the traditional pointillist style that he had used before 2003. He switched to the more abstract style of his My Country paintings, where he portrayed color fields consisting of coarse blocks with saturated colors in different tones on a black background.
Interestingly, his paintings appear from a distance to consist of uniform gradating, coloured blocks, whereas up close a wide range of vibrant colors are revealed. The intensity of his works often changes throughout the day as different light sources draw out and conceal distinct, shifting colours and elements. Kudditji’s paintings are visual interpretations of his birthplace, where the land and sky change throughout each day and season, conveyed through various shapes and colors.
Ever since Kudditji began to exhibit his artworks in 2003, his fame has steadily risen in the international art world. His work is represented in major national and international collections and Kudditji has gained worldwide recognition for the powerful interpretations of his ancestral Dreamings.
Kudditji Kngwarreye passed away in January 2017.