Literatur in unserem Bestand
(M-Z)

Sayers, Andrew: Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century, Melbourne 1994, ISBN 0195539958

Inhaltsverzeichnis        ¦         Klappentext        ¦         Buchbesprechung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword -ix-

Acknowledgements -xi-

Map -xiii-

Introduction -1-

Barak and the affirmation of tradition -13-

Tommy McRea, Aboriginal artist -27-

Drawing contemporary life -51-

'A taste for drawing' -69-

'The Dawn of Art' -81-

Carol Cooper: Traditional visual culture in south-east Australia -91-

Biographies -110-

Catalogue -119-

Notes -142-

Bibliography -151-

List of works illustrated -157-

Index -159-

Klappentext

This important volume brings together for the first time the work of Aboriginal artists of the nineteenth century - a largely unknown field. Much of this work was in the form of drawings, and they provide the fucus of Andrew Sayers' study. Aboriginal art of the nineteenth century has largely been obscured in the twentieth. Rarely displayed and never reproduced until the recent landmark exhibition upon which this book was based, many works have stayed in libraries, museum archives and private collections both here and overseas. Sayers reveals the extraordinary number of works by Aboriginal artists, and the great variety of subjects treated in these drawings. Often dismissed as inauthentic or inferior art, they enjoy a unique status as products of the interaction between Aboriginal society and European culture. At the core of the book is the work of the three most prolific Aboriginal artists of the century - Barak, Tommy McRea and Mickey of Ulladulla. Born in the early part of the nineteenth century, they produced their art in old age - an art mixing symbolism and imagination with reportage of contemporary life, traditional Aboriginal subjects with depictions of ships, Chinese immigrants, pastoralists and their homesteads. They display intense vitality and an acute understanding of flora and fauna. They also possess many of the aesthetic qualities that characterise contemporary Aboriginal art. In addition to the three principal artists, Sayers records the lives and works of many others. Liberally illustrated, "Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century" provides a much needed and fascinating record of this elemental meeting of Aboriginal and European cultures.