Emily Kame Kngwarrey's painting career began late in her life when she was in her 70s and lasted eight years. She is classified as an Aboriginal artist, and became the most successful Aboriginal living artist in the history of Australian art. At the time of her death in 1996, she had the highest income of any woman in Australia. Her colorful, expressive abstract works have been compared with paintings by Monet, Pollock, Kandinsky, and Matisse.