Violet Petyarre was cica 1945 at Atnagkere, on the western boundary of Utopia Station, in the Northern Territory. The family , including her seven sisters (Kathleen, Gloria, Ada, Gina, Myrtle, Nancy and Peggy) settled at Iylently or Mosquito Bore near Utopia Station She participated in the “Utopia a Picture Story – 88 silk batiks” which is now placed in the Robert Holmes a Court Collection. Violet used wood block techniques in which her Dreamings referenced were burnt into wood using hot wire and stamped onto fabric. Violet Petyarre lives on Anmatjerra land with hunter-gather traditions and her paintings are inherited stories of this region
She shares the Dreamings: Arnkerrthe(Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming), Annlara (Pencil Yam or Bush Medicine), Kadjeta (Grass Seed Dreaming), Engcarma (Bean), Unyara (Emu),
Elaitchurunga ( Small Brown Grass) and Awelye (Women’s Ceremony and Body Paint) with her sisters Gloria, Kathleen, Ada, Myrtle and cousin, Jeannie Petyarre.
Violet and her brothers and sisters have inherited custodial rights of the Arnkerrthe Dreaming (Mounytain Devil Lizard), which together with its associated narrative, is referenced in many works of Violet Petyarre.
The Arnkerrthe (Mountain Devil Lizard), is an important ancestral totem and depicts the Old Woman Devil Lizard’s journey and plights as she travelled vast tracts of land and the sacred sites she visited and named. The lizard is said to have carried a small pouch of ochre around its neck required for the sacred sites.=
Violet Petyarre delicately portrays her Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming through complex lines and dotting drawn on silk textiles (National Gallery of Victoria Collection). In 1988 her works-on-canvas followed this style, which she produced alongside her sister Kathleen Petyarre and her Aunt, the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
Group Exhibitions:
2004 – Art Aborigine Pour Tous, Galerie DAD, Mantes-la-Jolie, France.
1997 Songlines Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherhlands.
1996 Gallerie Australis, Adelaide, Australia.
1992 – Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs.
1991 – Aboriginal Women’s Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
1990 – Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Centre for the Arts, United States of America; The Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth; Utopia – A Picture Stor yan
exhibition of 88 works on silk from the Holmes a Court Collection by Utopia artists, which toured Ireland and Scotland.
1988-89 – S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney.
1989 – Utopia Women’s Paintings, the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project.
1988 – The Fifth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
Collections:
The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
The Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Museum Puri Lukisan, Ubud, Indonesia
The Museum & Art Galleries of the N.T, Darwin
The Australian Embassy Collection, Jakarta, Indonesia
The Adelaide University Art Collection, SA
The Holmes a’ Court Collection, Perth
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.