Art world split over NGA name change for one of Australia’s greatest female painters

National Museum of Australia’s senior Indigenous curator and head of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges, Margo Ngawa Neale, says the name change goes against the artist’s express wishes. Photograph: Greg Weight/NPGA collection

Two art world figures pivotal in the career of Australia’s most internationally lauded female painter have spoken out against the decision by the National Gallery of Australia to adopt a new spelling of her name.

The Emily Kam Kngwarray retrospective which opened at the NGA in Canberra earlier this month is the first major exhibition of the artist, who died in 1996, to use the new spelling.