Kathleen’s works are distinguished by rare aesthetic and tonal sensibilities.
Kathleen Petyarre is widely recognised among the most celebrated indigenous Australian female artists. Of Alyawarre and Anmatyerre communities, Kathleen was born at Arnangkere and settled later at Iylenty, both within the boundaries of the famed Utopia Station, renowned as one of the important epicentres of contemporary indigenous art movements.
At the first glance, Utopia seems to be a misnomer, a reflection of the optimistic spirit of pastoralists, rather than Sir Thomas More’s idyllic sixteenth-century vision of an island in the Mediterranean. Yet the landscape is not as perpetually barren and flat as popular travel books would lead you to believe. The monotony is frequently broken up by rocky outcrops and mountainous ridges; a turn in the road opens up to an unexpectedly picturesque vista; an intricate web of underground rivers and waterholes creates a scattering of
little oases with occasional gum trees, shrubs, and perennials.