Aboriginal artist finds Utopia in Japan

Some of the finest works of Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye opened in Osaka this year and will move on to Tokyo in the first major exhibition of Australia paintings in Japan. Comprising 120 of the artist's best works, gathered from international collectors including Sir Elton John, Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye is a retrospective 10 years in the making. Visiting Queensland Art Gallery in 1998, Professor Akira Tatehata saw Kngwarreye's Big Yam and wept. Since then, the director of Osaka's National Museum of Art worked to introduce the artist's work to Japan. Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye opened in Osaka on February 25 for seven weeks and in late May will move to Tokyo's new National Art Centre. In a remarkable career, Kngwarreye only took up painting in her late 70s yet produced more than 3000 works before her death in 1996.