Visual Arts

This dazzling exploration of Australian indigenous art is destined to become the definitive work on the world's oldest living artistic tradition. From rock shelters dating back 20,000 years to politically inspired contemporary prints, the artwork of the aboriginal cultures is recognized for its mastery, beauty, and cultural significance. Drawing from Australia's most outstanding collections--The Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Holmes Court Collection, Heytesbury, and the Art Gallery of the Northern Territory--this beautifully illustrated volume features contributions by twenty-five of the field's leading scholars as well as sixteen interviews with key contemporary artists. Over the centuries Aboriginal art has evolved in response to changes in the culture from which it has emerged: from the pre-contact period through the colonial era to the current participation of Aboriginal artists in international biennales and increasing appreciation of their work by contemporary collectors and museums. The types of artistic expression are as varied as the Australian landscape: the northern aesthetics of Arnhem Land; Papunya's mysterious dot paintings; the intense hues of the desert painters; Kimberly's ancient rock art; and the rich tradition of fiber arts. In this volume every aspect of aboriginal art is explored in detail and illustrated in brilliant color. The result is a comprehensive guide to a fascinating tradition whose significance can be fully appreciated through it.

In Remote Avant-Garde Jennifer Loureide Biddle models new and emergent desert Aboriginal aesthetics as an art of survival. Since 2007, Australian government policy has targeted "remote" Australian Aboriginal communities as at crisis level of delinquency and dysfunction. Biddle asks how emergent art responds to national emergency, from the creation of locally hunted grass sculptures to biliterary acrylic witness paintings to stop-motion animation. Following directly from the unprecedented success of the Western Desert art movement, contemporary Aboriginal artists harness traditions of experimentation to revivify at-risk vernacular languages, maintain cultural heritage, and ensure place-based practice of community initiative. Biddle shows how these new art forms demand serious and sustained attention to the dense complexities of sentient perception and the radical inseparability of art from life. Taking shape on frontier boundaries and in zones of intercultural imperative, Remote Avant-Garde presents Aboriginal art "under occupation" in Australia today.