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There are many important Aboriginal artists, recognised in Australia and overseas.
Australian Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) is one of Australia’s best-known landscape Aboriginal artists, and the first Aboriginal painter to receive international recognition for his art. Papunya Tula was one of the first, and also one of the most famous of a group of Indigenous painters from the Western Australian desert region. When a school teacher brought paints and canvases to this community there was a flourishing art movement which saw artists throughout the Western Desert converting their traditional art to the canvas.
Johnny Warangkula (often referred to as Johnny W) is known as a major artist in the art/dot movement and much of his work, layers of dots, records his stories for future generations. Sally Morgan is one of Australia’s best-known Aboriginal artists and writers. Sally is an artist of international repute. Her artwork is held in numerous private and public collections in Australia and the United States, including the Australian National Gallery and the Dobell Foundation collection. Other Aboriginal artists of note include Willy Tjungurrayi, Gloria Petyarre, William Sandy, Janet Long and Walangkura.
Australian.
With some rock paintings dating back as far as 20,000 years, Aboriginal art is recognised as the oldest living art tradition in the world. Art is an important part of Aboriginal life, drawing together past and present, people and land, supernatural and reality.
Traditional Aboriginal art includes both naturalistic-style paintings of real figures such as animals, plants and humans, and also more abstract designs including “u” shapes, lines and concentric circles.
The ‘dot’ style of Aboriginal art is extremely common and well-recognised, but there are a great number of other styles used as well.
The naturalistic styles, predominant in Arnhem Land - northern Australia - are renowned for a style called ‘X-ray’ where animals’ internal organs are drawn.
Abstract Aboriginal styles, popular in central Australia, originate from sacred designs originally used in ceremonies for body painting, carved on sacred stones and for ground paintings.
A lot of Aboriginal art is based on stories from the Dreamtime - the Creation Period – where, in Aboriginal belief Ancestral Beings formed the land, and created the people, plants and animals. Many contemporary artists use images from Dreamtime stories in their art. The Ancestral Beings are either depicted in plant, human, or animal form and are used to teach people about the history and customs of Aboriginal life, and the ceremonies and laws. Today indigenous art has embraced technology and new media while still drawing on Aboriginal cultural heritage for inspiration.
Aboriginal art has come to the forefront of Australia’s national identity in recent years, celebrated by Australians and the world in the opening ceremony of
the 2000 Olympic games. Australia’s indigenous artists have had a major impact on the art world with exhibitions in major galleries around the globe
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