Literature in our Collection
(A-L)

Leslie, Donn: Aboriginal Art - Creativity and Assimilation, Macmillan, Melbourne 2008, ISBN 9781921394003

Table of Contents        ¦         Cover Text        ¦         Book Review

Table of Contents

Preface -6-

Acknowledgements -7-

Introduction. Assimilation -9-

Chapter 1: A History of Aboriginal Art -17-

Chapter 2: Imaging Albert Namatjira -57-

Chapter 3: Indigenous Renaissance -97-

Chapter 4: Creative Revolution -123-

Chapter 5: The Art of Les Griggs -161-

Chapter 6: The Art of Lin Onus -223-

Postscript: Creative Transformation -285-

Catalogue: Selected sorks of Les Griggs and Lin Onus -289-

List of Illustrations -297-

Additional Ilustrations -304-

Further Reading -307-

Note on Terminology -312-

Index -315-

Cover Text

Dr Donna Leslie, an artist and art historian, explores Aboriginal art in relation to the effects of the policy of assimilation which prevailed in Australia from the 1930s to the 1970s. Her rigorous and sustained argument, supported by an impressive array of important visual images, reveals an extensive grasp of issues relating not only to the practice and history of art, but also in the fields of anthropology, ethnology and sociology. This book is a rare presentation of aspects of the history of Aboriginal art from an Aboriginal perspective, and provides fresh ways of understanding Aboriginal experience. While the author acknowledges the challenges of histories relating to assimilation processes associated with the former policy, her message is positive since it encourages a deepening empathy with Aboriginal art, cultures and peoples. This book is a reaffirmation of Aboriginal culture heritage which addresses the development of Aboriginal art and the ways in which we might better come to know and understand it.