Kudditji Kngwarreye is one of Australia’s leading Aboriginal artists. He recounts his travels across his land in blocks of strong colour boasting outstanding aesthetic excellence. His art transcends the notions of time and place, thus reflecting true Aboriginal culture. Moreover, his paintings unavoidably draw strong associations with Western abstract art. Aesthetically Kudditji’s paintings have been compared to those of Mark Rothko and Hans Hofmann, whose Colour Field paintings practically remain unknown to him.

Born around 1928 in the Utopia region, North West of Alice Springs, Kudditji came to painting in 1986. The younger brother of the celebrated painter Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Kudditji initially assisted his sister when she developed her own original artistic style. Stimulated by the introduction of acrylic paints, Emily painted large lyrical abstracts, contradicting previous notions of what contemporary Indigenous art meant. During the 1990s, Kudditji intuitively set out on his own to develop his famed sister’s dot and line abstracts into colour-block Abstraction.

Kudditji’s paintings embody the vast landscape of his country, sweltering under the extreme elements, charged with the cultural symbols and stories of his people. He celebrates a rapidly disappearing way of Aboriginal life in sensational colours, thus making his art a bright torch on the path from Utopia to the modern world.

Date Information: Monday to Friday
10am - 6pm

Location Information: Whitford Fine Art
6 Duke Street, St. James's
London SW1Y 6BN

More Information: PREVIEW: 14th October 2010 (6-8pm)
Mr John Dauth LVO, Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom will be in attendance at the private view to open the exhibition.