Kitty Kantilla
Jilamara 1997
earth pigments on canvas
112.0 x 100.5 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of Mobil Oil Australia Limited, Fellow, 1998
© The artist’s estate, courtesy of Jilamara Arts & Craft Association
Kitty Kantilla
A National Gallery of Victoria Touring Exhibition
27 April to 19 August 2007
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
7 December 2007 to 21 January 2008
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Kitty Kantilla (Kutuwulumi Purawarrumpatu) (Tiwi c. 1928–2003) produced an exceptional body of work from the 1970s until her last days in 2003. The NGV has a major holding of Kantilla’s works across all media that has been built up through close liaison with Jilamara Arts & Craft Association from 1991 onwards. In February 2001, after a year of 1995 negotiation, Una Rey manager of Jilamara invited the NGV to publish a book on Kitty Kantilla and to stage the retrospective exhibition.
The Kitty Kantilla retrospective is the ideal way to continue the sequence of special exhibitions that the NGV has organised focusing on aspects of Tiwi art: Ngingingawula Jilamara Kapi Purunguparri: Our Designs on Bark (12 September – 2 November 1992), Art of the Tiwi (travelling exhibition to regional and interstate galleries 1994–95), Raiki Wara: Long Cloth from Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait (4 September – 19 October 1998) and Yikwani: Contemporary Tiwi Ceramics (mid 2002 – 2003).
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