Summer Abundance V, 1993

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

90 x 120 cm

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Provenance: Delmore Gallery, Delmore Downs, NT, Cat No. 93L050
Artwork story: The Anooralya Yam is Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s principal totem and the foundation of much of her painting and ceremonial life. This hardy plant, native to the arid lands north-east of Alice Springs, is prized as a vital food source. Its tubers remain fresh underground for long periods and, once harvested, stay edible for weeks — a remarkable adaptation to desert conditions. The yam’s flower produces seeds known as kame, which can be ground into a nourishing seed cake; the flower itself is also a favourite food of the emu. As Emily often said of the yam, “it always comes back” — a phrase that captures both the plant’s resilience and its spiritual resonance in the desert environment. In this painting, Emily’s confident use of yellow conveys the abundance of the kame daisy. Her energetic, double-dipped brushwork gives a sense of rhythm and vitality, celebrating the renewal of life beneath the earth’s surface. Ceremonial practice ensures the return of good seasons, and Emily believed that her ritual role directly supported this cycle — that through her paintings she could “grow up” the food and life of her country. This work exemplifies Emily’s mature period, painted in anticipation of ceremonies taking place on her country, Alalgura, during the summer of 1993. Many believe that her most powerful paintings were created during such ceremonial times, when her art and spiritual obligations were most deeply intertwined.

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Emily Kame Kngwarreye

c.1910 – 1996

Region: Eastern Desert
Community: Utopia
Language group: Anmatyerr (Anmatyerre)

Summer Abundance V, 1993

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

90 x 120 cm

Enquire for price

Provenance: Delmore Gallery, Delmore Downs, NT, Cat No. 93L050
Artwork story: The Anooralya Yam is Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s principal totem and the foundation of much of her painting and ceremonial life. This hardy plant, native to the arid lands north-east of Alice Springs, is prized as a vital food source. Its tubers remain fresh underground for long periods and, once harvested, stay edible for weeks — a remarkable adaptation to desert conditions. The yam’s flower produces seeds known as kame, which can be ground into a nourishing seed cake; the flower itself is also a favourite food of the emu. As Emily often said of the yam, “it always comes back” — a phrase that captures both the plant’s resilience and its spiritual resonance in the desert environment. In this painting, Emily’s confident use of yellow conveys the abundance of the kame daisy. Her energetic, double-dipped brushwork gives a sense of rhythm and vitality, celebrating the renewal of life beneath the earth’s surface. Ceremonial practice ensures the return of good seasons, and Emily believed that her ritual role directly supported this cycle — that through her paintings she could “grow up” the food and life of her country. This work exemplifies Emily’s mature period, painted in anticipation of ceremonies taking place on her country, Alalgura, during the summer of 1993. Many believe that her most powerful paintings were created during such ceremonial times, when her art and spiritual obligations were most deeply intertwined.