Land Marks: The Art of Indigenous Australian Art Book

Stunning presentation of the best of Aboriginal Arthur Schwartz Books 100 color images Aboriginal art's dots, swirls, dashes, lines and bright colors have an appeal as contemporary art and yet this is the world's oldest continuing art -- and experts date it from to 20,000 years ago to perhaps even 100,000 years ago. To celebrate the Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne in March of 2006, the National Gallery of Victoria in that city presented over 200 works of the finest indigenous Australian art. The artists came from every part of the island nation. There are bark paintings and acrylic paintings, 'totems' and sculptures, stoneware objects and textiles. Among the artists: Clinton Nain, Turbo Brown, Bardayal Nadjamerrek, Billy Thomas, Murtikarika Tjumpo Tjapanangka, Barak, Emily Kam Kngwarray, and Judy Watson. One of the compelling aspects of this new publication is its treatment of superb photographs of land formations presented in relationship to the forms, shapes and hues of the Aboriginal art created in that region. From the ochre art forms of Arnhem land, to trees and rivers of South Australia and southern New Wales, from the sandstone ranges of the Kimberley, to the trajectories of the Central Desert, this pictorial approach provides a sense of the "voices" and "identities" of the land and of the artist's intentions -- although with any Aboriginal art, the deeper, sacred meanings are never revealed. Essays by Aboriginal experts give a perspective on its long history -- from ancient rock and body art, through the tradition of the bark medium and up to the first Papunya works that were first marketed to audiences in the 1970s, to today's blend of old, new and secret.Read More