Viewing ofReference Material
Art students and others conducting research are welcome to make an appointment with us to view the works listed in the adjacent table.
It is also recommended for Europeans to use the online search system at KVK (Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog), in which all German and many European scholarly libraries list their available references. Sometimes the works are available for loan.
A list of further references about Australian art, which however are not yet in our reference collection, is also maintained and continually extended.
Literature in our Collection
(A-L)
Cowan, James: Balgo new directions, Craftsman House, Sydney 1999, ISBN 9057036118
Table of Contents ¦ Cover Text ¦ Book Review
Table of Contents
The art of absence -7-
Entering the mainstream -17-
The triptychs -25-
Conclusion -28-
Paintings -31-
Triptychs -123-
List of plates -138-
Bibliography -142-
Cover Text
The Aboriginal artists of the Balgo Hills are considered by many to be the most innovative and daring painters working in Central Australia at present. Their work is characterised by a vivid use of colour and a strong iconic sense. In the early years of the community's artistic development, the artists remained closely linked with their traditional Dreaming stories and their birth terrain. Latterly, as the artists have become more self-conscious of their mastery over modern art materials, a new emphasis has begun to emerge: that of a more fluid and evocative use of traditional symbols in the fulfilment of their work. This has led to an extension of the traditional story within a painting. We are at present witnessing a consciously aesthetic programme in the minds of certain master artists. Balgo art has crossed over into the realm of mondern art, if not in substance, then surely in its imagery and the power to evoke particular mental states associated with nostalgia and displacement. This new book explores the work of the best artists currently or recently working at Balgo Hills.