Britain celebrates Emily, after hidden letter reveals it turned down Indigenous art

Sydney Morning Herald

4 days ago

One of Australia's most celebrated artists, Emily Kam Kngwarray, will be taken to the world this week in a major exhibition in London – as a long-hidden letter reveals how Britain once dismissed the idea of showing her work.
London's tube stations have been adorned with Kngwarray's vivid paintings of ancestral stories to promote the major event at the Tate Modern, the first solo exhibition in Europe to show her work.
The exhibition, organised with the National Gallery of Australia, will run for six months and is expected to draw thousands of visitors to see more than 70 works including early batiks and her final paintings.
But a letter sitting in a London gallery reveals the Tate turned down an offer to show Australian Indigenous art when Kngwarray was taking the art world by storm.
When London gallery owner Rebecca Hossack asked the Tate to consider adding Indigenous works to its collection in August 1996, the institution replied that it was adding contemporary works but would not consider Indigenous artists.
'You may have noticed that we acquired a landscape by Fred Williams last year,' Tate director Nicholas Serota replied, referring to the famous Australian painter.
'I do not think that it would be appropriate for us to move further and to take on an interest in Australian Aboriginal art, any more than we can do the same for equivalent work being undertaken in Africa or Latin America.'
Kngwarray, born on Anmatyerr country north of Alice Springs in around 1910, stunned the art world with her batiks and canvases after she began painting in her 70s. Her work now fetches millions of dollars at auction.