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Tate Modern Opens Emily Kam Kngwarray’s First European Solo Retrospective

Featuring over 70 batiks and canvases, this six-month retrospective coincides with the uncovering of a 1996 Serota letter rejecting Indigenous art acquisition.

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Emily Kam Kngwarray near Mparntwe, Alice Springs in 1980
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Overview

  • On July 10, Tate Modern launches its six-month showcase of more than 70 works spanning Kngwarray’s late-career batiks and acrylic paintings.
  • A newly revealed August 1996 letter from then-director Nicholas Serota discloses a past decision not to acquire Australian Aboriginal art, including Kngwarray’s pieces.
  • London Underground stations are displaying her vibrant ancestral imagery to promote the artist’s European debut.
  • Curators have provided unusually thorough wall texts to explain foundational Aboriginal concepts such as Country and Dreaming.
  • Tate director Maria Balshaw has described the retrospective as one of the museum’s most significant recent exhibitions, underscoring a shift toward Indigenous art.