Art From Australia
"My Country" By Kudditji Kngwarreye
"My Country" By Kudditji Kngwarreye
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Artist: Kudditji Kngwarreye
Size (H x W): 200 x 121 cm
Kudditji Kngwarreye’s “My Country” paintings are deeply personal and spiritual expressions of his connection to Utopia, Central Australia. Through bold blocks of colour and shifting tones, Kudditji maps out his traditional land — a place of ceremony, ancestral memory, and Dreaming. Unlike the detailed dot style of many of his peers, Kudditji’s abstract approach reflects how he feels the land: the heat, the light, the stories beneath the surface.
Each colour field represents different aspects of Country — from sandhills and waterholes to sacred men’s sites and ceremonial places. As a custodian of Men’s Dreaming stories, Kudditji painted with a strong sense of law, responsibility, and storytelling. His work invites viewers to experience Country not just as a place, but as a living presence, held in memory, culture, and paint.
About the Artist – Kudditji Kngwarreye
Kudditji Kngwarreye (c. 1928–2017) was a respected Anmatyerre Elder, custodian, and artist from Utopia in the Northern Territory. A younger brother to the famed Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Kudditji was deeply connected to his Country and its stories. Before painting full-time, he worked as a stockman, hunter, and ceremonial leader, teaching cultural law and caring for the land. His Dreamings include Emu Dreaming and My Country — stories he was responsible for as a senior lawman.
Kudditji’s art is recognised for its bold colour fields and abstract landscapes, evoking the spirit and memory of his ancestral homelands. Unlike the intricate dot work used by many of his peers, his soft-edged blocks of colour create an emotional map of Country, one rooted in cultural knowledge and ceremony. Through his paintings, Kudditji invites the viewer to feel, rather than see, the landscape, connecting with the deep time and living energy of the desert.
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