Tjiturrulpa, 2005, Eileen Napaltjarri. And heres a fiery closeup of this painting.
  • Tjiturrulpa, 2005, Eileen Napaltjarri. And here's a fiery closeup of this painting.

Come October, Seattle art will be temporarily feminized (we can talk about what that means later). Elles, the exhibition entirely by women from the collection of Paris's Centre Pompidou, is coming to Seattle Art Museum, which will turn its own regular collection installation into a woman-only affair.

By a womens collective, 1999.
  • By a women's collective, 1999.
But you don't need to wait that long to see a concentration of living artists who happen to be women: That's the quiet story behind Ancestral Modern, the exhibition of Australian Aboriginal art up for another month or so at SAM (closing September 2).

The first room of paintings in Ancestral Modern is actually a conversation between an entire group of female artists who are blood-related—sisters, cousins, mothers, daughters. It's a anchored by knockout paintings on all sides—and several of the rooms in Ancestral Modern are show-stoppers. I recommend seeing the show if you haven't already; maybe returning if you have before the paintings go back into storage and you regret it?

Coincidentally, Vancouver Art Gallery this summer is showing the spectacular collection of the Cone sisters of Baltimore—a collection built around a stunning array of Matisses. (The most stunning array that lives on American soil, in fact.) There's a connection: Ancestral Modern comes to SAM from collectors Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi of Seattle. Speaking of impressive women, Levi is a star, a political scientist and author—who happened to grow up in Baltimore. Etta Cone, who lived 20 years longer than her sister Claribel, lived down the hall from Levi's family in Levi's first years in Baltimore.

"My mother would hold my arms down when we went over to visit," Levi recalled to me recently, "so that I didn't elbow one of the paintings on the walls."

A whole Flash movie of the Cone collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art is here. If you go to the VAG to see them, check for elbow marks made by Levi when her mother was falling down on the job.

More images from the women of Ancestral Modern are on the jump.

Abie Loy Kamerre, Bush Hen Dreaming, Sandhill Country 2004.
  • Abie Loy Kamerre, Bush Hen Dreaming, Sandhill Country 2004.

Violet Petyarrs Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming, 1999.
  • Violet Petyarr's Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming, 1999.

Yukultji Napangatis Yunarla, 2010, a depiction of the tangled vines of a bush banana.
  • Yukultji Napangati's Yunarla, 2010, a depiction of the tangled vines of a bush banana.

Queenie McKenzies Horso Creek Massacre, Gija Country, 1995, referring to a massacre of indigenous people. The stain on the lower part of the hill is blood.
  • Queenie McKenzie's Horso Creek Massacre, Gija Country, 1995, referring to a massacre of indigenous people. The stain on the lower part of the hill is blood.

Sandhills, 2006, Dorothy Robinson Napangardi.
  • Sandhills, 2006, Dorothy Robinson Napangardi.

Lilmim and Jimbala, Lena Niyadbi, 2002.
  • Lilmim and Jimbala, Lena Niyadbi, 2002.

Emily Kam Kngwarray, Awelye (Ceremony) from Linear Series (body paint), 1994.
  • Emily Kam Kngwarray, Awelye (Ceremony) from Linear Series (body paint), 1994.