Stolen Aboriginal Paintings found!

Good news everyone!

The Aboriginal Art stolen overnight in Darwin has been recovered

Stolen Aboriginal art found in Australian bushland

Tue Apr 1, 2008 2:23am EDT

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Seven historic Aboriginal paintings were found in bushland in the northern Australian city of Darwin, several hours after they were stolen from a Northern Territory art gallery, police said on Tuesday.

The seven paintings included six works from the Papunya Tula, or Western Desert Art Movement of central Australia, which popularized the indigenous art movement in the 1970s with their dot paintings of traditional stories.

"The paintings ... were located in bushland near the Darwin Bowls and Social Club," police said, adding one man had been taken into custody for questioning over the theft.

Papunya Tula paintings are among the most popular and valuable in Australia, with a 1977 work by the late Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri selling for A$2.4 million ($2.2 million) in 2007.

Gallery director Anna Malgorzewicz said the paintings were historically significant works.

"They are one of the first bodies of work from that area, so they (are) historically very significant," she said.

Aboriginal Art Works Stolen

Some bad news today with the overnight break in at the NT Museum and Art Gallery. People within the Aboriginal Art industry need to be vigilant and on the look out for these pieces. Making it impossible for the thieves to sell the works is the best way of reducing thefts like this in the future and will also help to recover these works.

'Priceless' works stolen from gallery

April 01, 2008 10:03am

Article from: AAP

• At least eight works stolen from gallery
• Thieves broke window to get in
• Gallery is renowned for Aboriginal art

AT least eight priceless artworks have been stolen in a heist at the Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery in Darwin.

Police said security staff at the museum, in the Fannie Bay district, raised the alarm shortly before 4.30am (CST) today after finding thieves had smashed a window to get inside before fleeing with the paintings.

The stolen works include six Papunya Tula style paintings as well as a central Australian watercolour painting from the Namatjira family.

The gallery is renowned for its collection of Aboriginal art.

"At least eight paintings have been taken from the display area in the museum," Darwin Police Watch Commander Bob Harrison said.

"We've had the museum staff initially attend and they've told us that the value of the paintings is priceless, so we are carrying out further investigations.

"We're getting our forensic people and our investigators to carry out further investigation at the scene."

Heist ... an example of work by the Papunya Tula artists, Kaakuratintja (1979) by Uta Uta Tjangala, similar to those stolen from an art gallery in Darwin / Image supplied

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Emily makes inroads into Japan

I reported on March 8 about an exhibition in Japan featuring Emily Kngwarreye. Well the exhibition has been picked up by local press in Japan so i decided to feature the article here on Aboriginalartblog.com. It's a very well written article, well worth the read!

The Japanese market has always been a little strange for Aboriginal Art. Whilst the Japanese love of Australia as a holiday destination is well known, their appreciation of Aboriginal Art has taken a little longer to develop. It seems at long last Aboriginal Art is making inroads into the Asian market. Hopefully the Japanese will come to appreciate our Indigenous art in the same way as many other people from other parts of the world have!

Emily's Country

Akino Yoshihara / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

OSAKA--An Aborigine community in the boundless red desert of central Australia nurtured a gifted artist who was full of dynamism and creativity. Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who lived in a remote region on the edge of the Simpson Desert for more than 80 years, had no exposure to the Western art world for most of her life. Nevertheless, she is highly admired by international art experts and collectors as one of the great abstract painters of the 20th century.

The sophisticated artistic expression in her paintings is often compared with that of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. In fact, the development her art followed is regarded as parallel to that of contemporary art itself.

Some readers may still remember a Sydney auction that stunned the art world in 2007. Her 1994 painting Earth's Creation was sold for more than 1 million Australian dollars (about 95 million yen), marking a new record for a female Australian artist.

Margo Neale, a senior curator of the National Museum of Australia, says Emily's paintings appeal to Western viewers because they are not "readable," unlike other conventional Aborigine paintings, which have visible motifs.

Emily--as she is most commonly known--was born around 1910 in her paternal clan's country, Alhalkere, in the Utopia region, about 230 kilometers northeast of Alice Springs. As a senior custodian of her people's culture, she had been involved in body marking and sand drawings for decades before starting batik work in 1977 as part of government-funded education programs.

In 1989, when she was in her late 70s, she moved to acrylics on canvas, and produced between 3,000 and 4,000 works in the eight-year period until her death in 1996 at the estimated age of 86. Her studio was an open-air space on the ground where she usually sat cross-legged.

Emily, who was unable to write, painted from her shoulders instead of her wrists, making her paintings look extremely gestural.

Neale says Emily's brushstrokes were the natural and spontaneous brushwork that many Western artists struggle to achieve. "Hers are totally exuberant, free and direct," she says.

The exhibition, titled Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, is currently on show at the National Museum of Art, Osaka. It explores the life of the extraordinary artist through more than 110 works, including batik dyed textiles, from 65 collections.

The exhibition, for which Neale is curator, came to fruition due in large part to the persistence of the National Museum's director, Akira Tatehata, who refers to Emily as a "miraculous painter."

Tatehata recalls his first encounter with her art at a retrospective exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery in 1998: "I was stunned [with her innovative art] because I didn't understand how an aboriginal genius whose life was unrelated to Western art culture could achieve the highest level of contemporary abstract art."

He says he was impressed by the way she created modernist pictorial space in her paintings, because he found her space was similar to the space that has been used for centuries by the great Western masters.

The exhibition will surely smash viewers' stereotyped images of aboriginal art, which is often perceived as primitive.

Although her abstract paintings are rather difficult to interpret, her art cannot be separated from the indigenous culture and tradition of Alhalkere, which is deeply connected with her life and spirituality.

Neale says, "No matter how original and profound her formal virtuosity, her style and methodology derive from very local aboriginal practices in which she was rigorously schooled."

She adds, "Her cultural traditions are quite Japanese in many ways, [such as] the reverence for nature, ritual, ancestor worship and the idea of the past in the present."

Aborigines pass down their cultural narratives about their worldview, known as Dreaming. These Dreaming stories are important records of their ancestral activities. For Aborigines who did not have a written language, painting helped them memorize history and laws, and retain their culture.

Likewise, Emily paid homage to her ancestors through singing and dancing for women's ceremonies, called Awelye, while depicting aspects of her Dreamings, such as pencil yams, grass seeds and emus, in her paintings.

Neale says it doesn't matter how different the paintings look; they are all about the same subject, her ancestral Alhalkere.

"It's her reason for being and source of her creative power," she says.

Emily's first painting, Emu Woman (1988-89), which was produced as part of a project organized by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association, caused instant excitement for the quality of its aesthetics. The painting consists of decorative dots featuring ceremonial marks made on women's breasts in earth tones.

However, Yasuyuki Nakai, curator at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, argues that her style maintains flatness and simplicity while also expressing many ideas.

He also says that she--whether consciously or unconsciously--neutralized colors by skillfully using combinations of receding and advancing colors, applying black dots to white lines and brown dots to ochre lines, for example.

The degree of abstractness she employed grew over the next few years as she started to use colors indicative of her home while sticking to dots ranging from fine to coarse.

Emily is said to have determined which colors she would use not only by her emotional state but also by the changing seasons.

Kame--Summer Awelye I (1991) is painted in colors of yellow, orange, red and pink in the form of layers of fine dots, expressing wildflowers in full bloom throughout the dry land after summer rain.

In 1992, Emily went to Canberra to be awarded an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship by then Prime Minister Paul Keating. While there, she saw her own paintings hanging at the National Gallery of Australia.

Nakai says Emily's style of dot paintings had completely changed by that point, adding that it was a turning point in her career.

"Seeing her own work in Canberra may have made some impression on her because she was considering stopping painting at that time," he said.

The Alhalker[e] Suite (1993), a large-scale installment composed of 22 canvases, shows her prodigious talent in the use of diverse colors.

Nakai says, "Emily appeared to have created the composition of the paintings to make each look distinctively different by skillfully arranging warm and cold colors."

Moreover, experiments in brushstroke can be found in some of her paintings of this period.

Five untitled paintings displayed side by side were painted with a big shaving brush belonging to an artist and gallery owner whom she had known for a long time. The large multicolored dots that look like chrysanthemums were created as a consequence of the strength in her hand. As she slapped the canvas with the brush, the hairs splayed out in all directions, causing the paint to follow suit.

In early 1994, the expression of her paintings shifted from dots to minimal stripes derived from ceremonial markings on women's bodies. Because of the simplicity of the lines, the flow of the brush can be clearly observed. Some lines represent single strokes while others indicate the brush was lifted up in midflow, adding unique movement in the paintings.

Those minimal stripes, however, were transformed into meandering lines, becoming more bold and powerful a year later.

Challenging the limits of her physical strength, Emily depicted the yam as her major Dreaming story on a series of large canvases with flagging energy. In fact, the yam is important to her not only as a staple food, but also as an analogy for her life.

Her epic work Big Yam Dreaming (1995), measuring three meters by eight meters, was completed in just two days.

The white lines intertwining with each other against the black background represent hidden roots growing under the surface of the ground. The picture symbolizes the life force of the roots, which causes cracks on the surface of the ground.

Emily's distinctive dots and lines completely vanished from her final series of 24 paintings depicting Alhalkere, produced two weeks before her death in September 1996. Despite being in poor health, she never lost her desire to paint and asked for a brush about 10 centimeters wide. Consequently, her brushstrokes became bold and smooth.

The small canvases feature slabs of vivid colors, including rose, ultramarine and red. The direct and immediate action of the brushstrokes looks somewhat tensed, reflecting her mental state in those days, but also shows her unbelievable vitality and great confidence in her work.

No matter how her style of painting changed, her deep affection for her country, Alhalkere, remained in her mind through her life.

*Note: Emily's paintings have no established position in which they must be shown, so their display may vary depending on publication or exhibit.

Utopia:

The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Until April 13, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (until 7 p.m. on Fridays). Closed Mondays.

National Museum of Art, Osaka in Kita Ward, Osaka, a 10-minute walk from Higobashi Station on the city's Yotsubashi subway line.

Admission: 1,300 yen for adults; 1,000 yen for university students; 600 yen for high school students. For details, call the museum at (06) 6447-4680 or visit the Web site at www.emily2008.jp. The exhibition will tour to the National Art Center, Tokyo, in Minato Ward, Tokyo, from May 28 to July 28.

Ticket Giveaway

The Daily Yomiuri is giving away five pairs of tickets to Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye at the National Museum of Art, Osaka.

To apply for the tickets, send a postcard to arrive by March 20 with your name, address, age and telephone number to: Daily Yomiuri Ticket Giveaway, 5-9 Nozakicho, Kita Ward, Osaka 530-8551.


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Holidaying in Australia, Outback style!

Here is a great article from an American about what it is like to take a holiday in Australia Outback Style! For anyone thinking of coming to our wonderful country, this will give you a brief insight into what you can expect!

Make it more than 48 hours in the Outback

From Aboriginal art to a singing dingo, Australia offers the trip of a lifetime

March 23, 2008
By Drew MacKenzie Special to The Sun

The Outback is a whole lot more than just a big rock in the middle of the desert, which is like saying the Grand Canyon is just a whole in the ground.

Each year thousands of tourists fly into Ayers Rock in Northern Territory, Australia, to spend less than 48 hours visiting the world's most famous monolith, now officially known by its Aboriginal name Uluru. But, though that's a must-see of course, they're missing out on an exciting cultural experience combined with a touch of luxury and adventure that can easily be considered the trip of a lifetime.

Instead of Ayers Rock, my wife, Emily, and I flew into Alice Springs, rented a car and headed for the beautiful Vatu Sanctuary, a mini-Shangri-La where we stayed in one of the three splendid villas. On the outside, there are magnificent fountains and ponds, as well as a solar-heated pool, not to mention the abundant bird life, while on the inside there's an impressive display of indigenous art from the owner's gallery in town, Gondwana.

Ayers Rock is increasingly being referred to as Uluru. The rock symbolizes a growing recognition of the important place Aborigines hold in a land they occupied before white settlers arrived. Courtesy of the Australian Tourist Commission

After learning about the origins of Aboriginal art at the Mbantua Gallery and how their dot paintings often explain their history, we headed over to the sizable Desert Park on the town's outskirts. With its extensive collection of local plant life, visitors learn how Aboriginal tribes survived off the land for 20,000 years while also spotting kangaroos and other creatures in the wild. Although the live Birds of Prey exhibition was captivating, more fascinating was the sprawling hall with its darkened rooms allowing visitors to see desert animals, like deadly brown snakes and adders, in their natural habitats.

After some gallery and museum hopping in town at Todd Mall, we dined at the fashionable QC restaurant and indulged in the tasting plate for two, consisting of a mixture of succulent specialties. The next morning we headed out early for the 465-kilometre drive to Uluru/Ayers Rock, making certain we were topped up with water and gasoline, just in case. On the way we stopped at Stuart's Well roadhouse for refills and were entertained by the famous Dinky the Singing Dingo, who howls while accompanying himself on the piano. Really!

With its red sand and changing flora, along with sightseeing stops for massive Mount Conner, the five-hour drive is gruelling but not boring. Finally, the famous sandstone rock Uluru, one of the world's great wonders, rises up in the distance, and the awesome sight made every mile worthwhile. With an hour, we were ensconced in a room at the luxurious five-star Voyages Sails in the Desert Hotel at the Ayers Rock Resort, where we were quickly loathe to leave our luscious surroundings.

However, wanting to learn more about Aboriginal art, we rode to the Dot Painting Workshop at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park where an indigenous artist, with a translator, showed how the locals paint, mostly with dots of varying colors, to describe their lives and culture. Afterwards, we visited the gargantuan 300-meter high rock, taking two Uluru walking tours that amazed with its sheer size and scope, and even catching sight of a wild dingo. Some people take the 8-kilometre, three-hour base walk as well.

The highlight of the Red Centre was the incredible candlelit Sounds of Silence dining experience, which at $150 a person seems steep at first but cheap in the end. After a coach drives diners onto a gravel road and drops them off on a mound in the desert, they have panoramic views of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. While sipping champagne, the sun starts to slowly set, resulting in incredible color changes on Uluru and even a rainbow effect in the sky. A didgeridoo player then thrills diners with his music and Aboriginal history, which is followed by a gourmet barbecue with Australian delicacies and classic national wines. The candles are then extinguished and we're treated to a lecture on the spectacular shining stars above, a real-life planetarium that includes the Milky Way and Southern Cross.

The next day we took it easier with an hour's drive to the dramatic Kata Tjuta, aka the Olgas, and went on the vigorous but enthralling Walpa Gorge Walk. That still left plenty of time to wallow in the hotel's huge pool and our room's round Jacuzzi tub before having dinner at the plush restaurant Kuniya, where the damper bread with spices was just remarkable and the Barramundi special unforgettable.

The following morning there was a 306-kilometre drive to Watarrka National Park, home to famed Kings Canyon, the Outback's miniversion of the Grand Canyon. And although we stayed at the Kings Canyon Wilderness Lodge, we weren't exactly sleeping rough. With a comfortable cabin and king-sized bed, plus en suite facilities, we dined by campfire under the stars, feasting on tasty kangaroo and camel meat, and mouth-watering bugs. Ten minutes away, potential adventures include helicopter flights, camel rides and quad bike rides, with guides to prevent anyone getting lost in the wilderness.

Up before dawn the next day to walk the Canyon's rim for three hours before the sun made it unbearable, our outgoing guide led the way to the top, a strenuous rocky climb even for the moderately fit. The weathered domes of the Lost City were breathtaking while the Garden of Eden with its dark pool and lush plant life at the bottom is well worth the long trip down. Make sure to get a picture of yourself in the spot where "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" was filmed.

Although the arduous drive back to Alice Springs takes another four hours, it ended with a relaxing night at the recently-renovated Aurora, the only hotel on the bustling Todd Mall. After visiting the Reptile Centre with its venomous snakes and crocodile exhibits, we found the perfect way to end our stay, the Red Centre Dreaming dinner show. As wild kangaroos and wallabies come down from nearby hills to feast on scraps around the stage, the entertainment starts with a lecture on indigenous culture. It's followed by a three-course meal as Aboriginals, wearing body paint, put on an amusing display of traditional dancing and ancient tools like the boomerang.

Join in the fun, like I did, and make a fool of yourself trying to play the didgeridoo, because it's back to reality tomorrow.

Random facts

• There are 600,000 wild camels in Australia, and camel meat is becoming increasingly popular. Decades ago, camels were first imported from the Middle East and now they are being exported back there because they're purebred.

• The distance between Alice Springs and Kings Canyon will virtually be cut in half when a 100-kilometer gravel road cutoff, now used only by SUVs at a safe speed, is paved in the next few years.

• The didgeridoo is the oldest wind instrument in the world, and the Aborigines began playing it 1,500 years ago. The hollowed out tree branch measures up to 10 feet long and is played in keys from D to F.

Ayers Rock is increasingly being referred to as Uluru. The rock symbolizes a growing recognition of the important place Aborigines hold in a land they occupied before white settlers arrived.
Courtesy of the Australian Tourist Commission

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Aboriginal Art remains strong in the auction market

With the art auction market feeling the pinch currently, it was great to see that Aboriginal Art is still as popular as ever!

The below article is quite long and mainly deals with recent auctions involving non indigenous Australian Art but the bold part shows that despite the lull in the current auction market, Aboriginal Art sales remain strong, to the point that records have been broken at recent auctions.

This is great news for the industry and shows that the popularity of Aboriginal Art is able to transcend the current art market vulnerabilities.

Sombre times as art buyers sit on their hands

Peter Fish
March 22, 2008

There were long faces and numerous unsold lots at Deutscher-Menzies's big Sydney art auction on Tuesday. Even the auctioneers themselves didn't bother trying to put a positive spin on the sale, for a change.

You won't see a lot of gloating and chest-beating from DM's bitter auction rivals Sotheby's, Deutscher and Hackett, and Bonhams & Goodman, which have big sales coming up next month and a trail of anxious vendors with high expectations.

DM said the ratio of lots sold on the important first night of the two-night auction was down as much as 66 per cent, compared with previously claimed levels of about 75-85 per cent, saying many buyers seemed to be sitting on their hands. It figures the sale raised $8.3 million, excluding any after sales. That sold ratio means one-third of the 141 lots on offer - more than 46 paintings and sculptures - will go back to disappointed vendors.

The firm's national head of art, Tim Abdullah, said no one at DM was expecting this year to rival last year's boom, but even with lowered expectations the results were disappointing. ArtSmart was unable to attend, being caught up at the office till late, but there was plenty of anecdotal evidence that the mood at DM's Kensington premises was sombre, with bidding sporadic at best.

The auctioneer is claiming an artist record for its star lot, Russell Drysdale's Country Child at $1.68 million, but some observers point out the hammer price for this work, $1.4 million, was right on the button of the estimated range, given in the catalogue as $1.4 million to $1.8 million. Before the sale DM was whipping up expectations of $2 million plus. It's a worthy work, but is regarded as something of an old chestnut since it's been offered over and again in the saleroom - at least twice at DM itself in the past 10 years.

One of few standout prices was the modernistic rowing study The Eight, just 31 centimetres by 22 centimetres, by the British linocut artist Cyril Power. It paddled up a storm with a price of $44,000 compared with a $24,000 to $30,000 estimate, amid bidding from Britain, the US and Canada. Power was a member of London's Grosvenor school.

Sid Nolan's Kelly in the Landscape - unmasked in this column last week as the retitled Ned Kelly And Two Figures In The Bush, which sold for $306,200 at Christie's in 2005 - went for $660,000. That's more than double the 2005 price but still below expectations.
Important works by Salvador Dali and Rosalie Gascoigne were among the unsolds.

Indeed the auctioneer itself admits most of the major works were knocked down at the lower estimates. Did they all really find new homes or will some be discreetly reoffered around the trade in coming weeks, as has happened after DM sales before?

In the following night's sale, a somewhat more downmarket offering under the banner of DM's stablemate Lawson-Menzies, there was a considerably improved sold ratio of 84 per cent, and a number of records claimed for Aboriginal art. In the present squeeze on financial and credit markets - which almost certainly means few will be buying pictures with borrowed money - the art auction market is rapidly developing the jitters.

There are reports that Sotheby's and Deutscher and Hackett have been approaching dealers, showing off their wares and trying drum up interest in their upcoming sales. All around town there is the sound of vendor expectations being massaged downwards and estimates being cut to the bone. And it's unlikely the art gallery business will escape the pinch, despite the unseemly rush for Arthur Boyd's signature Shoalhaven River studies we reported last week.

Even the mercurial Rodney Menzies, who owns and runs Deutscher-Menzies and its stablemate Lawson-Menzies, was apparently in a dour mood on Tuesday, describing the sale as a tough day at the office.

Running a specialist art auction division with teams of well-paid specialists and high insurance and other overheads is an expensive business. There are many mouths to feed, as one insider said this week. Tough times could be ahead, particularly for those solely dependent on the flighty Australian paintings market - like the relative new boys on the block Deutscher and Hackett, run by the former DM men Chris Deutscher and Damien Hackett.
In such conditions it is handy to have a second string to the bow. Sotheby's and Bonhams & Goodman may be glad they retained a foothold in the less hype-driven decorative art and Australiana market, and in the case of B&G cars and collectables.

Rod Menzies might even discover his inner Annandale - perhaps he'll turn to his neglected Lawsons general auction business, run out of a seedy warehouse, as a beacon of steady saleroom cash flow.

Asian daggers, wavy or straight

Fanciers of the kris, the wavy or straight-edged blade that was once a symbol of pre-Islamic manliness and rank throughout much of Indonesia and Malaysia, will find much to admire on the website of Hermann Historica in Munich. The firm has catalogued a huge sale of historic weaponry and armour on April 9 and 10 including more than 60 kris, plus many other edged weapons from the East. Most of the kris on offer date from the early 20th century century, including a large number of Balinese examples. Many of the blades have gold details, said to indicate a royal or aristocratic provenance. Many have interesting pamor, the patterning that results after the kris maker folds in different metals as part of forging the blade, as well as carved hilts in ivory, horn or rare woods.

Among them is an "executioner" kris, so-called for its long, straight blade that was used to penetrate the unfortunate victim's heart from above, entering through the shoulder. The catalogue is at www.hermann-historica.com.

H marks Lachlan's dump

Noble Numismatics is offering another of its vast auctions of coins, notes, medals and other numismatic material in 16 sessions starting on April 8 and running through to the following Friday in Sydney. A highlight is the coin collection of the former Sydney taxi repairman John Wilson, which occupies a catalogue of its own. Wilson is known for seeking out coins in the most pristine state. As the catalogue says, he put quality first and price second. Most of the coins are the finest known examples of their type - which means they are sure to attract fancy prices. Among the many sharp and shiny specimens on offer, perhaps the least prepossessing is Wilson's "dump", the little coin that Governor Lachlan Macquarie punched out of his stock of Spanish dollars to provide distinctive coinage for the struggling colony.

The dump is marked on the front with a crown and the wording New South Wales, and the date, 1813. The outer "doughnut" that remained after Macquarie's moneyer punched out its centre was of course the legendary holey dollar or five shilling piece.

By striking coins worth six shillings and threepence from the dollar, which was worth five shillings, the canny Macquarie managed to add considerable value for his colonial treasury. The Wilson dump still shows traces of the host coin beneath the overstruck design, and also just visible on the reverse is the initial H, for the moneyer Macquarie used, the convict known only as Henshall.

Despite looking a bit scratched compared with its smart neighbours in the catalogue, the dump is attractive and relatively well preserved - hence the beefy estimate of $50,000. Whether it will get anywhere near the $99,025 one fetched last year remains to be seen.

The main sale includes four other examples with estimates from $4000. There are also some later replicas - the inclusion of which is controversial in a numismatic world where it's not unknown for copies to be resold to unwitting buyers as originals.

Among the items are a number of Tsarist-era Russian icons and other items including a collection of 19th and early 20th century silver cigarette cases. These are decorated with embossing, engraving, niello-work (a process of inlaying black pigment) or coloured enamels. Designs include prominent buildings, hunting scenes and animals.

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Record prices for Aboriginal art

March 20, 2008 04:16am

Article from: AAP

ABORIGINAL art up for auction in Sydney has attracted strong interest and set record prices.

Some 120 works went under the hammer tonight for the Lawson-Menzies auction, many of which were post-1980 Aboriginal works.

A spokeswoman for auction house Lawson-Menzies said a clearance rate of 80 per cent showed the works were popular with investors.

"This has been a very strong night for the sale of Aboriginal art," she said.

"Sale prices broke records for three Aboriginal artists."

A polymer paint on linen work by Judy Watson Napangardi, titled Women's Dreaming, sold for $216,000 including a 20 per cent buyer's premium.

Another synthetic polymer paint on linen piece, Kutungka Napanangka at Papunga, by Walangkura Napanangka, sold for $52,800 including buyer's premium.

The third record-breaking price was achieved by a Robert Campbell Junior canvas titled Ash Wednesday. It sold for $21,600 including buyer's premium.

Information about buyers was not available immediately after the auction, however the spokeswoman said the sale was expected to "attract younger investors and those wanting to purchase museum-quality Aboriginal art".

Link to original article at News.com.au

Hi Everyone. Here is an article about Des Art in the park held in Alice Springs. With over a thousand people in attendance, it seems like it was a stunning success!

Des Art in the Park

Last Update: Thursday, March 20, 2008. 10:23am ACST

By Nicole Lee

There was a frenzy of buying and selling as over a thousand people gathered to pick up an art bargain at Des Art in the Park.

Stalls selling everything from bright canvases to jewellery, prints, and painted artefacts were at the event, which brings together Aboriginal owned and controlled art centres for a two day conference and art market.

Eighteen art centres from as far away as Tjukurla in Western Australia and Ernabella in South Australia travelled to Alice Springs. Vicki Bassito, coordinator of the Tjukurla Art centre, 800 kilometres west of Alice Springs said the event is a great opportunity for the artists and the public.

"It's a great chance to showcase our work and meet with the public and actually talk about the paintings and many artists are here tonight talking about their own work which is an opportunity the general public don't often get."

The art market comes at the end of a two day conference for art centre co-ordinators. Alan Tyley from Keringke Arts at Santa Teresa said that the main issue at the conference was marketing.

"Even though in central Australia we see a lot of Aboriginal art the market is growing incredibly vibrantly throughout Australia so there's a fair bit of competition for what works are available by commercial galleries and to get the work out to those galleries."

Debra Myers from Ernabella Arts in South Australia said the most important issue for her discussed at the conference was how to get more Aboriginal people working in local art centres. "I think we really need to be careful about how the programs are implemented and have lots of consultation with the people that are actually going to be doing the training."

Article and photos courtesy of ABC.net.au

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Kimberley Cruising

Hi everyone. Below is an article from Peter Hughes about a cruise he partook in across the top end of Australia. It's a great article describing this unique holiday that every Aboriginal Art enthusiast should try to experience once in their life! I think Peter does a great job of describing the cruise and what it entails. It's a great read:

Australian cruise: Bond Street meets outback

Peter Hughes

Last Updated: 11:25AM GMT 18/03/2008

On an expeditionary cruise in Western Australia, Peter Hughes enjoys the remoteness, the ancient cave art - and some solid home comforts.

Anywhere else they would have called this a safari, but safari is a tricky word in Australia. If it summons up visions of rhino roaming the savannahs, of slinking leopards and stalking lions, the Australian version may be a bit of an anticlimax.

The most dramatic wildlife encounters down under are notional. It is the thought of the homicidal that gives Australia its frisson: venomous snakes, toxic spiders, psychotic sharks, lethal jellyfish and crocodiles that can take off your leg before they are half grown. All lurk in the imagination's long grass but they are not really the stuff of tourist tick-lists. The reality is safer, if tamer.

That is why, on the second morning of my voyage into the Timor Sea aboard the expedition ship Orion, we looked at mangroves. And while our quarry did look like a load of undergrowth, there were compensations.

We were skimming up an estuary in Zodiac inflatables. It was low tide. Crocodiles slumped on the mud as active as granite, their thumb-sized brains having concluded that a Zodiac was neither a threat nor edible.

Orion was anchored in Prince Frederick Harbour at the mouth of the Hunter River off the north coast of Western Australia. Don't be fooled by the marina-sounding names: this is a place remote even to Australians.

Above us sheer curtains of coppery rock fell from a bumpy skyline of scrub. Up there was the lip of the Mitchell Plateau, a recently declared National Park and some of the most inaccessible country on the continent. Offshore is Naturalists' Island. It has only just got into the gazetteers; its English name was officially approved in 2004.

The sight of a yacht anchored in the estuary made me feel almost cheated out of total isolation. Which, of course, is nothing to what the yachties must have felt when five inflatables sped past and two helicopters began flying trips to the plateau.

The Zodiacs turned out of the main channel and puttered up a muddy creek in single file. Mud skippers, little newt-like creatures, twitched on the banks, flipping themselves along with their tails. We stopped and the expedition's botanist, Tony Roberts, delivered his spiel about mangroves and how they survive in salt water.

Launched in 2003, Orion was designed as an expedition cruise ship, with the emphasis on cruising. Or so it seemed to me. Yes, she has huge stabilisers for the rollers of the Southern Ocean and a draft shallow enough for the Amazon, and is so slim she can enter the locks of the Great Lakes. Yes, she has a lecture theatre, a fishing launch and fishing guide, an expedition team and those Zodiacs for beach landings. But such intrepid stuff brooks no discomfort.

The passenger areas are fitted out more for expeditions to Bond Street than the outback. With only 100 passengers, Orion is small enough for everything except the restaurant to be contained within three decks. Cabins are priced on size – though none is small – and window area. The best open on to French balconies.

Orion does expeditions in the way Ralph Lauren might do dungarees. After storming a beach from a rubberised inflatable, you come back to yacht-like quantities of wood panelling and buffed brass. The decks are teak, the bathrooms marble and the outdoor furniture varnished timber.

There is a shop, exercise room and plunge pool and huge quantities of attractive Aussie food. On two evenings prawns and much else were thrown on the barbie on the aft deck. Dressing for dinner means long trousers, rather than shorts. Apart from films the only entertainment is the crew show, which was rather like an early round of Pop Idol but better-natured.

The largest single species of wildlife you encounter is Australians. Only young labradors are more openly companionable. But even labradors are not quite so self-revelatory.

Within seconds of meeting Vera I learnt that she prefers wearing skirts to trousers, but as the ship has no hangers with clips, what is she to do? Esther's husband is back in Melbourne. She introduced me to her companion: "I travel with my medical adviser. My husband is very old and frail." And that was before the first glass of fizz.

At dinner I sat next to Jill, an effortlessly elegant septuagenarian, who was soon roaring through her racy life as a model and occasional film stand-in. There was one outback location where Chips Rafferty, then Australia's biggest star, picked her up at the airstrip. She was in an unsuitably short skirt; he was in a Land Rover. He insisted she join him in the front, opposite the gear lever. She saw what was coming. "Spread yer legs, girlie," he cried as he yanked the stick through a tactile semaphore of superfluous gear changes. "Ah, Chips. He was a character," Jill sighed.

The 11-night Kimberley cruise goes from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Broome in Western Australia and back, an 800-mile arc of coast with barely a vestige of human habitation, at least few that were not several hundred years old.

Bradshaw Art is a style of rock painting that is believed to be the most ancient in Australia. Joseph Bradshaw was the first white man to see it in 1891. The examples we saw are on Jar Island, some 315 nautical miles south-west of Darwin. They are the rock art equivalent of L S Lowry, spindly little prancing figures unlike any other aboriginal paintings. It has been suggested that they may be the work of a completely different ethnic group.

We gathered on deck. Kitted out in bright blue buoyancy collars, we looked like troops prepared for D-Day or, in our case, veterans about to take part in a re-enactment. At the beach we paddled ashore to find towels laid to dry our feet, cold fruit juice and a pile of walking canes cut straight from the bush and ready-fitted with rubber finials.

The paintings were on two ledges a short walk from the beach through spiky spinifex and up a clamber of rocks. The paint has reduced to a dark brown stain. The rock itself is more highly coloured; it's almost tangerine. With no pigment left, the paintings cannot be carbon-dated. But dating of a wasp nest, which covers one of the figures, suggests the figure underneath is at least 17,000 years old.

The most graphic examples of native art were on Bigge Island. Shallow caves open into a wall of sandstone blocks so regular they look more like ruins than rock. Inside are some remarkable illustrations of "contact art", the natives' record of their first sight of Europeans. A sailing ship, sketched in blue, is believed to be Abel Tasman's, the Galiot, from which he mapped the coast in 1624. In another scene three men appear in a dinghy. The boat has rowlocks – introduced at the beginning of the 19th century. The men have wide-brimmed hats and, in their mouths, huge pipes.

The caves are narrow and, for all the warnings, the less agile scrape their backpacks against the pictures. "It's a contentious issue," admitted our expedition leader, Robin West. "We as tourists can visit these sites, but the aboriginals can't get to them. And in a cave system like this people rub against the paintings and touch them. I don't think we shall have the same access in a few years' time."

Whatever the Kimberley lacks in exotic wildlife it makes up for in camera-sating scenery. We watched the tide fall at Montgomery Reef, a 150-square-mile plateau of tawny coral. Water cascaded off its flat back as if it was a monster surfacing. As the reef was exposed, patrolling sea egrets, white and grey, scavenged for any fish left stranded.

There can be a 30ft to 33ft tide here, the third biggest in the world. So at Talbot Bay even a ship the size of Orion does not have the power to pass through the narrows when the tide is running. At the end of the bay the tide races through two pinched gaps – 50ft to 65ft wide – with such force they have been called the Horizontal Falls. As the tide was turning the Zodiacs staggered against the churning current, just managing to get through. Above us towered rough piles of rock, rust red, the colour of decay. It was like a scrapyard of geology. Scrawny little trees sprang from the cliff face; turkey bush ruffled the skyline. It is rock, not water that defines the Kimberley.

Two days later we took the Zodiacs up the King George River. Its wide blue waters glide through a shallow canyon whose amber walls rise vertically 300 feet. Here is a Lost World landscape. If there were dinosaurs they would be here in this primeval gulch. Again the rock is derelict – cracked and disintegrating. The shattered valley ends in a smooth rock face stained black with algae from which spout two 250ft waterfalls.

Nearby, in an anchored Zodiac, a barman was mixing buck's fizz. Another compensation.

Cruise basics

Peter Hughes's cruise on Orion was arranged by Tailor Made Travel (0845 456 8050, www.tailor-made.co.uk), which is offering similar expedition cruises to the Kimberley this year from £4,199 per person. The price includes two nights in Darwin, 10 nights on the ship, return economy flight from London to Darwin, taxes and airport transfers in Britain.

Orion (www.orioncruises.com.au) runs other cruises, also bookable through Tailor Made Travel, to the Antarctic, the Solomon Islands, the Coral Sea, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

Link to original Article

Exhibition for the Mowanjum Artists of the Kimberley

Thanks to Anna for providing information on the Cultural Connections exhibition being held in Perth later this month. If you will be in Perth during that time, go along and have a look, you might just find the Aboriginal painting you just have to have!

The exhibition "Cultural Connections: The Mowanjum Artists of the Kimberley" hosted by Artitja Fine Art who are the exclusive Perth representatives for the Mowanjum Artists will be held at the Atwell Gallery in Alfred Cove opening 28th March and continuting daily 10-6 until the 6th April. For more information call Anna on 08 9336 7787 or 0418 900 954.

Lawyers helping make a difference for Aboriginal Artists

Here is a great article from The Australian about Lawyers helping Aboriginal Artists with will making to ensure that their estate is not left in limbo and that the benefactors they have chosen aren't left with complicated legal headaches.

Hats of to the Arts Law Centre from Sydney for this fantastic initiative.

Lawyers offer lessons in legacy

Victoria Laurie March 14, 2008

WHEN Albert Namatjira died in 1959, his descendants missed out on a share of the celebrated artist's estate. In 1957, Namatjira had signed a copyright agreement with the owner of a publishing company, Legend Press.

Two years later, Namatjira died and his estate was handed over to the Northern Territory's public trustee, which in 1983 sold copyright in the works to Legend Press for $8500. It left Namatjira's family unable to gain any benefits from the lucrative reproduction of the artist's popular works over many years.
With trade in contemporary Aboriginal art booming, and paintings that sell for many thousands of dollars, families may miss out on a financial legacy if artists die without leaving wills.

This was the problem faced by the Mowanjum art centre in northwest Western Australia, near Derby, when an important artist from the community died suddenly in 2006. The artist had no offspring of her own although she had raised many children in the community.
She had painted glorious canvases, 50 of which were sitting in the art centre storeroom. They were collectively worth between $50,000 and $200,000, but it was entirely unclear where they should go.
"It left the community with a bit of a headache," says Jenny Wright, manager of the art centre. "What were we to do with them?"
It happened again two weeks before lawyers with the Sydney-based Arts Law Centre arrived in Derby to talk about will-making. Another senior Mowanjum artist had died intestate, and community members flocked to hear what the lawyers had to say. "I thought it was going to be a disaster, with everyone engaged in funeral arrangements," says Arts Law executive director and lawyer Robyn Ayres, who attended the Derby meeting. "But it actually sharpened people's minds about the issues involved and we had a big turnout.

"We worked flat out for four days and we drafted 22 wills for all the artists. Even ones who weren't working out of the arts centre came forward. Sadly, one of the willmakers has passed away since and the art centre has told us (the will) really made a difference."
Ayres and her small team explained to the Mowanjum artists that when a person died, it wasn't just their paintings that could become valuable inherited items. Under intellectual property law, a deceased artist's work is subject to copyright for 70 years after death.
"If it's a successful artist, and there's a desire to reproduce their work, then there's a potential income source for the beneficiaries," says Ayres. "It may just be a trickle but even a few hundred dollars now and then makes a difference."

Arts Law's services in will-making are part of a program called Artists in the Black, intended to increase indigenous access to legal advice on art-related matters. Ayres admits that the popularity of the service (which is not extended to non-indigenous artists, who are simply provided with Arts Law's sample will) has taken them by surprise.
"We also deal with other difficult issues like where a person wants to be buried, who is going to look after their children. It serves a number of purposes."

Mowanjum's art will be recognisable to those who remember watching the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremony, and the ghostly Spirit of the Wandjina image that artist Donny Woolagoodja created. As art centre chairman, Woolagoodja was among the first to write his will with Arts Law assistance. "They are a good thing to do," he says on a visit to Perth this week, before an invitation-only showing of Mowanjum art at resource giant Woodside's headquarters, and a gallery exhibition later this month.
"It means people know they are not going to go (pass) away and leave nothing to children and grandchildren," he says. Without a will, he adds, "maybe everything goes back to the government".
Contemporary Aboriginal art earns healthy incomes for many more artists than in Namatjira's day.
Woolagoodja's work can fetch up to $15,000 for a major painting, and last November, Sotheby's auctioned a Mowanjum collective painting for $35,000.
Sandra Mungulu, whose work will also be displayed in the Mowanjum exhibition, last year achieved the community's highest solo price for a painting, of $21,000.

Making wills becomes more important as prices increase for indigenous art, says Wright. In addition, Aboriginal communities increasingly have more assets to distribute, such as boats and cars bought with mining industry royalties or wages.

Community arts centres often get caught up in the emotional wrangling over posthumous intellectual and property rights on behalf of members, she says. "So it's healthier from our point of view that the community is informed about all of their legal rights. This is a fantastic program."
Wright says when Ayres and Arts Law's indigenous lawyer Trish Adjei visited Mowanjum, the relief among artists was palpable.
"It was a resounding success and a great turnout. People were able to break off into family groups and discuss matters in private with a lawyer. People said they felt better and that the process accorded respect to their elders."
This week, Adjei was back up north with another lawyer, drafting 13 wills for artists at Waringarri arts centre in Kununurra, and another half dozen at Warmun art centre at Turkey Creek. Fitzroy Crossing is next on their itinerary.

"One artist at Waringarri passed away two years ago (without a will) and the public trustees have taken a year to find the relevant stakeholders," says Adjei. By writing down the names of nominated beneficiaries, she says, it will be a speedier process to distribute assets.
What has surprised Adjei is the generosity of those artists seeking to spread their few assets and remaining paintings around.
"There wasn't a single person who didn't already know who they wanted to leave things to," she says. "And a lot of the elderly artists have a large number of beneficiaries: one had 30 people to whom they wanted to leave assets.

Link to original article

Floods Can't stop Aboriginal Art Sale!

Congratulations to the Artists, organisers and art lovers who attended the fantastic Aboriginal Art sales in the Tiwi Islands!

Sounds like despite the poor conditions they have had a huge success.

Crowds gather for Tiwi art sale

Posted Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:03am AEDT

Flooded roads have not stopped one of the country's biggest Aboriginal art sales from going ahead on the Tiwi Islands off the Northern Territory coast today.
Around 90 artists from Bathurst and Melville Islands have gathered on the Nguiu football field to sell their art, before the islands' football grand final kicks off later today.
John Martin Tipungwuti from Bathurst Island is selling his wood carvings this morning.
"It's good to see a lot of people that come in, see all the people and stuff I haven't seen," he said.
"We're going to be busy."
Around $50,000 worth of art is expected to be sold today.
The Tiwi Art Network's Niru Perera has helped organise today's sale.
She says it has been a huge task getting the art from Melville Island, because the major road is flooded.
"We've used the barge and we've also had to charter a few planes as well," she said.
"Apparently all the tickets have sold for the flights with Tiwi Travel and the ferry has sold out.
"So that means we're to expect over 700 people coming through our doors."
The sale runs from 8:00am until 1:00pm ACDT.

Story Courtesy of ABC News:

Link to Original article

New Featued Section at Aboriginal Art Blog.com

Hi Aboriginal Art enthusiasts,

Aboriginalartblog.com is introducing a new featured section called Spotlight on an Aboriginal Art Gallery. We will be reviewing a new gallery every few weeks with details on who they are, where they are located, and what makes them unique in the industry. There are many great galleries out there that provide exceptional service to the industry and support Aboriginal Artists and their communities enormously.

Much of the work done by these galleries and the people behind them goes largely unnoticed and unrecognised. As well as providing you with an insiders perspective on a particular gallery, as well as another option to view and purchase Aboriginal Art, we want to highlight the fantastic work done by these galleries that you might not normally hear about.

So keep an eye out for our regular "Spotlight on an Aboriginal Art gallery" articles. The first one is already online here now. Just look down :)

Bye for now

Spotlight on an Aboriginal Art Gallery

Walkabout Fine Art Gallery

The Walkabout Fine Art Gallery is located in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States. Walkabout is an Australian owned and managed gallery and specialises in bringing quality paintings by Australian aborigines to the market at affordable prices whilst promoting Aboriginal Art to the whole of North America.

Just like the Aborigines, Walkabout Gallery is also a nomad. They will be hosting a number of short term gallery openings of contemporary Australian aboriginal art in cities throughout North America.

Walkabout also specialises in supplying U.S. Based Galleries and Interior Design Firms with Aboriginal Art at wholesale prices.

In addition to their U.S. stock, Walkabout has over 2000 paintings available in Australia that can be delivered to America within 3 weeks.

One of the aspects of Walkabout that i really like is for a gallery located on the other side of the planet, the owners travel back home to select artworks by traveling throughout outback Australia. They visit artists, galleries and remote communities to select the finest artworks. They also pay for all the artworks up front providing the artists with a direct income and the communities with instant support. A major plus!

One of the really unique features about this gallery is that if you are unsure about the suitability of a particular artwork, they will rent it you for a short period! That is something i really like!

Taking that one step further, all Walkabout's paintings are available for either sale or lease! Another unique feature i really like that gives customers the ultimate in choice.

Walkabout's website has a large range of artworks to view in 4 different categories. The site is cleanly laid out and also features information on many of Australia's leading Aboriginal Artists.

Many people feel more comfortable dealing with businesses based in the country they live in so for those of you living in the U.S., those that do business there, or those of you who have friends in the U.S. who may appreciate some unique Australian Aboriginal Art, Walkabout Fine Art Gallery provides the best of both worlds, Aussie knowhow and expertise in Aboriginal Art without being located half a world a way.

Have a look at their website by clicking on the link below

www.walkaboutfineart.com

Opportunity in India for Aboriginal Art

Please find below an interesting little article about the opportunities for Australian business in the massive fast growing market that is India.

With a population of over a billion and a large and growing middle class of 325-350 million people, India is an amazing opportunity for Australian businesses, including those involved in Aboriginal Art.

Territory business invited to 'ride the elephant'

An India based AusTrade commissioner has visited Darwin, talking up the export opportunities for Territory businesses.

Aminur Rahman, who hosted the weekend's 'Riding the Elephant' seminar, says local crocodile skin producers, information technology companies and even aviation businesses could play a part in India's booming economy.

"Size is not the issue, it really is about quality. It's about service, it's about the right product. It's also about being in a position to sort of supply things as well."

Mr Rahman says India's economy is growing at more than eight per cent per annum, offering opportunities for in agriculture, resources and Aboriginal art sales.

"It really is a country that's going places, and obviously with our linkages, offers a lot of opportunities."

Link to original article

Indigenous art exhibition opens in Osaka Japan

Below is a transcript from ABC's PM program on Radio National about an exhibition being held in Osaka Japan. Aboriginal Art is incredibly popular all over the world and here is another example of the diverse locations that Aboriginal Art is making waves in. Click on the link at the bottom of the page if you would like to listen to the interview online.

PM - Monday, 3 March , 2008 18:37:00

Reporter: Shane McLeod

MARK COLVIN: The profile of Australian art is getting a boost in Japan with the launch of a major exhibition by the great aboriginal painter Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

The exhibition has just opened in the city of Osaka.

It's the biggest ever international exhibition of the works of an Australian artist.

Those behind the show are hoping to open Japanese eyes to the unique story of Kngwarreye's work: an Indigenous woman who took up the brush and canvas late in life and produced works what many regard as works of genius.

Tokyo correspondent Shane McLeod attended the launch for PM.

SHANE MCLEOD: Japan is known as one of the richest art markets in the world but it's also a country where to become a big name in art, it helps if you're European.

It's a mindset that the organisers of a major new exhibition launched in the city of Osaka hope to change.

Featured is the art of Indigenous Australian Emily Kame Kngwarreye. She was around 80 years old when she first put brush to canvas, from the tiny community of Utopia in central Australia.

Her abstracts stunned the art world; more in keeping with 20th Century modernism than conceptions on Indigenous art.

Margot Neale from the National Museum of Australia wants the exhibition to make a big impression in Japan.

MARGOT NEALE: If they've ever wanted to have master art, they never look to Australia.

So, it's going to be very intriguing for the Japanese saying well how come, you know the National Arts Centre of Tokyo, or the National Museum of Osaka are doing a blockbuster on this lady called Emily who we've never even heard of, who's supposed to be a master from the red heart of the desert of Australia; ancient you know black woman and all of that.

So that extra story is going to absolutely create a fantastic unsettling.

SHANE MCLEOD: Margot Neale has coordinated the effort to put together the largest ever overseas exhibition of an Australian artist.

There are 120 works on show from more than 60 different collections. Included among them is the art work of Kngwarreye's that set records in Australia; the massive Earth's Creation last year set a record for Indigenous art, when it changed hands for more than one million dollars.

But the head of Osaka's National Museum of Art isn't interested in the price tags.

Akira Tatehata is awed by the artistic quality of works painted by an 80-year-old woman in the middle of central Australia.

(sound of Akira Tatehata speaking)

At the beginning I was just stunned, he says. I stood there absent-mindedly in front of the painting. But suddenly it was joy. It was such a strong feeling it was strange even to me but tears started falling. I thought, why am I crying? I didn't know why I was crying. Perhaps I was so moved because I came in touch with something so beautiful.

SHANE MCLEOD: Emily Kngwarreye died in 1996. In the years since her death her reputation has grown.

Professor Tatehata was so intrigued by her history that he travelled to outback Australia to see first hand where she created her art.

(sound of Akira Tatehata speaking)

The air, the wind and the nature in the bush and the desert are near her grave. What I experienced overlapped with the memory of when I see her paintings. I gained a deeper understanding and it became real.

I'd simply thought it was modern art, but by going there, I was able to understand the depth of something that I'd seen in a very modern context.

SHANE MCLEOD: Nearly one fifth of the works on display are from the private collection of one of Emily Kngwarreye's most enthusiastic supporters, Australian businesswoman Janet Holmes a Court.

JANET HOLMES A COURT: It's only fitting that they should end up here but of course that wasn't on our minds when we bought it.

The first reason we bought Emily's work was that we were deeply moved by it; we liked it. It's almost a visceral response that I have to it.

SHANE MCLEOD: After two months in Osaka the exhibition will move to Tokyo's National Art Centre in May.

This is Shane McLeod reporting for PM.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2178653.htm

Exhibition from the East Gippsland Aboriginal Artists

Article about a new exhibition from the East Gippsland Aboriginal Arts Corporation

Not just dots

Last Update: Wednesday, March 5, 2008. 5:26pm AEDT

By Catherine McAloon

Aboriginal art, especially Aboriginal art from East Gippsland, is about more than dots - that's the message the East Gippsland Aboriginal Arts Corporation is hoping to convey in a newly opened exhibition.

Wood-burnings, mono-prints, pastels, pen and ink drawings and contemporary paintings line the walls of an exhibition by artists of the East Gippsland Aboriginal Art Corporation. But one thing you wont see here are dot paintings.

"Everybody walks in and I think they honestly expect to see dots," says East Gippsland Aboriginal Art Corporation executive officer Robyn Evans. "They expect to see bark paintings and ground ochre and they are usually stunned by the contemporary style and medium and also the colour."

Robyn says the art corporation - which is unique among arts organisations in that it is 100 per cent Aboriginal owned and controlled and the only Aboriginal artists' corporation in Victoria - actively dissuades its artists from going for dots.

"We are very big on not appropriating from other places, which is why we dissuade dots unless people have links to places where they are able to do that.

"We also help our artists research their own symbols and markings from their own areas. East Gippsland is a diverse lot of people - they are not all Gunnai Kurnai, they are not all from Gippsland - they come from other places, so you will see a variety of styles based on where people have come from," Robyn says.

She says since the corporation started in the early 1990s it has been an uphill battle to convince the public that dots don't necessarily denote Aboriginal art.

"We are still fighting a common perception that all Aboriginal arts is dots and comes from the territory - the top end.

"We are still trying to show people that we are here and we make art and it is just as beautiful and just as culturally unique and authentic as anywhere else in the country.

Rather than producing typical traditional works, Robyn says the Aboriginal artists of the East Gippsland corporation express their heritage in a variety of ways.

"People are actually depicting what is important to them and that's the common denominator, and they are sharing their culture in a wide variety of mediums. We've got traditional painters, wood burning, pastel work and printmaking. Some of it is very, very contemporary and abstract, and some of it is more realistic. All of it is expressing people's aboriginality in some way, in some form.

Artist Brett Ross, who draws detailed pictures in pen on paper, says he became inspired to start producing art after discovering his Aboriginal heritage.

"I was fostered out, and then I found my natural mother, and then I started learning about my culture, because I didn't know where I was from ... that's my inspiration - finding out who I am."

Brett says for him the process of drawing is almost like being in a trance-like state.

"I wake up out of my drawing mode and I'm like: 'oh, wow, did I do that?'

"That's the reason why I sketch, because I love art. I'm passionate about it."

Jennifer Mullet, who produces abstract symbolic artworks across a range of mediums, says she is influenced by the landscape of the bush.

"I spent a lot of time living in different areas of Australia. I spent the early part of my life in far-East Gippsland, in the bush. It's always been a huge influence on my work, I keep coming back to the landscape," Jennifer explains.

Jennifer says her art is also informed by world events, with one of her pieces in this exhibition a yellow canvas covered with the word 'sorry' written several times in red paint.

She produced the work in 2007, when then Prime Minister John Howard was refusing to issue a formal apology to the Aboriginal stolen generations. But Jennifer says in many ways the painting holds more significance now that new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has apologised.

"It's been acknowledged. It symbolises the recognition of the stolen people."

Nirmba Gidi Quarenook - Blak Swans Gatherin' an exhibition by the East Gippsland Aboriginal Arts Corporation is on display at Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale unitl March 30.

http://www.abc.net.au/gippsland/stories/s2181177.htm?backyard

Aboriginal Art Showcased in Bahrain

Aboriginal Art continues to spread globally with an exhibition this week in

the island kingdom of Bahrain, set in the heart of the Arabian Gulf.

With the enormous wealth and development throughout the gulf region and the locals appetite for the best of everything, high quality Australian Aboriginal Art is poised to make a major impact in the region in the future.

With exhibitions last year in Dubai, and The Melbourne Racing Club presenting Aboriginal Art as part of their racing tour in the past, this is surely the beginning of a very exciting market for Aboriginal Art!

Below you will find a copy of the article and link to the source.

Chance to see aboriginal art

By ALISTAIR BAPTISTA

AUTHENTIC contemporary Australian Aboriginal artwork will be unveiled at 7pm tonight during the opening of the Warlukurlangu Artists exhibition at La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Art, Manama.

The exhibition will showcase the work of Otto Simms and Ormay Gallagher, who work for the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Association (WAAA) art centre in Yuendumu, Australia.

It is the first visit for the artists, who are accompanied by centre director Cecilia Alfonso.