Emily Kam Kngwarray review – connected to something far beyond the art world

Tate Modern, London The Indigenous Australian artist started painting as an old woman, making over 3,000 extraordinary works in just a few years. Emerging from a profound sense of place, they leave the viewer teetering with wonderPainting quickly and directly, with few revisions and no changes of heart, Emily Kam Kngwarray’s art is filled with exhilarations and with difficulties. Part of the pleasure of her art is that it is so immediate, so visually accessible, with its teeming fields and clusters of finger-painted dots, its sinuous and looping paths, its intersections and branchings, its staves and repetitive rhythms. You can get lost in there, and sometimes overwhelmed. You can feel the connection between her hand and eye, and the bodily gestures she makes as she paints.Kngwarray’s paintings might well remind you of a kind of gestural abstraction they have nothing to do with, and which the artist would never in any case have seen. The things we look at in Kngwarray’s art are about an entirely different order of experience to the similar kinds of brushstrokes driven this way and that around other, more familiar canvases we might also find in Tate Modern, where her retrospective has arrived from the National Gallery of Australia. But this similarity is also one of the reasons Kngwarray became famous in the first place. Continue reading...

Comments

Culture

Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner says HBO series was her ‘sex education’

Independent

Comments

Culture

Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner says HBO series was her ‘sex education’

Gary Coleman: New documentary suggests child actor’s death was ‘suspicious’

Touching tribute made to Liam Payne in late One Direction star’s final project

Huge Hollywood actor gets stuck into pit at Black Sabbath’s final gig

Emotional Netflix fans moved by Liam Payne tribute in new Building The Band series

Amazon Prime fans can now binge all 10 episodes of ‘sinister’ crime thriller spin-off

Who will replace Gregg Wallace on MasterChef?

Who could replace Gregg Wallace on MasterChef? Names in the frame to be new judge

BFI London Film Festival to open with premiere of third Knives Out film

Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner says the fantasy show was her ‘sex education’

Visually, it’s dazzling but Noughts & Crosses wilts under the weight of its YA source material

The tragedy and triumph of Superman’s Margot Kidder

Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson says gay viewers criticised him for ‘stereotypical’ role

Julian McMahon’s family share statement on Nip/Tuck actor’s death, aged 56

Lauryn Hill addresses fan confusion after severely delayed festival set

The Salt Path publishers issue statement about ‘due diligence’ after allegations of factual inaccuracies

Building the Band on Netflix: this X Factor successor is a fitting tribute to Liam Payne

Nicki Minaj mocks Megan Thee Stallion over harassment lawsuit update

TV viewers hail ‘most underrated show’ of 2025 so far after lack of acclaim

17 awful performances by great actors, from Tom Hanks to Robert De Niro

Netflix hidden gem with perfect Rotten Tomatoes score unearthed

Iconic heavy metal musician Kevin Riddles dies age 68 after cancer diagnosis

Ed Sheeran to exhibit paintings created in car park

Gregg Wallace warned not to 'say women made it up'

Johnny Depp offered ‘trust and love’ as a director says lead actor of Modigliani

The Devil Wears Prada sequel reportedly adds Bridgerton star to cast

The Sweeney at 50: How a brash, brutal police drama transformed British television

Fantasy v reality: Lena Dunham's Too Much is a new spin on the London romcom

Backstreet Boys singer sues Florida county over sunbathers on his private beach

Johnny Depp finally speaks out about Fantastic Beasts recasting

James Gunn’s Superman reboot will make you believe in superhero movies again

Dune 3’s official title revealed — and fans aren’t happy

Nicki Minaj mocks Megan Thee Stallion over harassment lawsuit update

Jurassic World Rebirth director reveals sage advice from Steven Spielberg

After Diddy: Why hip-hop is still struggling to have its own 'MeToo' moment

Don’t Look Back In Anger named UK’s most played Oasis song of the 21st century

Johnny Depp offered ‘trust and love’ as a director says lead actor of Modigliani

The UK’s most-played Oasis song of the 21st century revealed

Tiger King star pleads guilty to illegally trafficking animals and laundering money

The Salt Path author says claims best-selling book based on lies are 'highly misleading'

Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill star Michael Madsen’s cause of death announced

ITV confirms ‘incredible’ period drama is finally ending after 11 years

We're taking a chaotic trip to 'Love Island,' babe

A preview of the controversial new building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Why writer Jenny Han understands embarrassment so well

Richard Greenberg, Playwright Whose ‘Take Me Out’ Won a Tony, Dies at 67

The new Superman film is derivative nonsense

Dune 3’s official title revealed — and fans aren’t happy

James Gunn’s Superman reboot will make you believe in superhero movies again

How The Salt Path dissolved into allegations of lies, theft and betrayal

I’m a TV critic and this week I’m bingeing a jaw-dropping series

British singer forced to cancel performance due to ‘dangerous’ safety concerns

'No space for Bezos': Hundreds protest against billionaire's wedding on final day of Venice celebrations

Pulp revealed as mystery Glastonbury band as they echo famous 1990s headline set

New books this week focus on Caitlin Clark, King Tut, and how 'Democrats Lost America'

At Jacob’s Pillow, a High-Tech Theater Rises From the Ashes

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Will Be Sentenced in October

Listening Back to When Janet Jackson Was for Lovers

‘Such Brave Girls’ Is an Audacious and Hilarious British Comedy

Terrifier director teases role for WWE legend Rhea Ripley in gruesome horror franchise