Contemporary Aboriginal art

The emergence of Contemporary Aboriginal art

As western influences spread throughout Australia, the traditional stories began to be recorded with more modern materials such as inks, crayons, pencil and acrylic paints on canvas and paper. This made the work more accessible to the wider audience outside of these communities.

In the late 1950s, Aboriginal art was accepted into the art world when 17 Tiwi Island burial poles or "Pukamani" were installed in the foyer of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. From this point, a growing number of collectors, galleries and curators worked with various Aboriginal communities to educate the western world about the cultural importance of Aboriginal art and traditions.

The concept of the modern Aboriginal art movement as we know it is widely attributed to a defining moment in a small Aboriginal community in the Central Desert region.

In 1971, Geoffrey Barden was a school teacher in the small Aboriginal community of Papunya in the Central Desert. Fascinated by the sand drawings of the children he taught, he persuaded the adults to reproduce one of their traditional stories - Honey ant dreaming - as a mural on the wall of the school. This event inspired many more people from that community to pick up a brush and paint their stories.

The Papunya artists began to use modern paints and are credited with developing the infamous 'dot technique'. The art emerging from the area was probably the first collectable movement of Aboriginal art in Australia and the artists formed the first Aboriginal-artist owned art co-operative in Australia, now known as Papunya Tula.

Gradually the inhabitants of other communities started to produce their artwork for sale. The unique techniques and history behind the works took the outside world by storm and established a sustainable income for the individuals, communities and art centres.

Since the 1980s, public demand for Aboriginal art has risen sharply. Urban-based Aboriginal artists have also enjoyed growing interest. Using imagery more recognisable by western standards, they express Aboriginal culture with a different voice and comment on Aboriginal politics in a more contemporary fashion.

Aboriginal art now proudly hangs in the most prestigious art galleries in the world and countless high profile private collections.

Source: We referenced McCulloch's wonderfully rich publication "Contemporary Aboriginal Art" to compile these pages and recommend it for further reading. Contact us to purchase a copy.