John Wilkerson with Steve Martin, in front of Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming by Kathleen Petyarre (1940–2018) at the exhibition 60 Over 50 at Uovo Art Storage in New York, 2024.
Photography by Sandee Oliver.
Kathleen Petyarre Anmatyerre Language Group, circa 1935-2018
Provenance
The Artist, painted at Utopia, Northern Territory
Gallerie Australis, Northern Territory, cat. no. GAKP0808534
Private Collection, Melbourne
D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
Collection of Steve Martin & Anne Stringfield, New York
Exhibitions
UNSW Unearthed, Shalom Institute, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, December 2008
Home Is Where the Art Is: Contemporary Aboriginal Art for Living Spaces, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, 20 September – 17 October 2012
Dream Catchers - Featuring Maningrida, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, 20 October – 17 November 2012
60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, New York, 15 - 20 May, 2023
Literature
Vanessa Merlino and Luke Scholes, 60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, 2023 (illus.)
Thomas Connors, The Magazine Antiques, Cultural Crossings, July/August 2025, p. 130-141
"Petyarre’s totem, the Thorny Devil Lizard, referred to as ‘that Old Woman Mountain Devil’ underlayed and informed all of her work. This tiny desert creature is believed to have created the vast desert home of the Eastern Anmatjerre people by moving each grain of sand, grain by grain, since the dawn of time. Petyarre, like her clanswomen, believed that they are its descendents, and have therefore inherited the responsibility for caring and nurturing the vast landscape that she depicted so intimately and carefully in her paintings." (Text from Art Leven)