Will Owen's blog - an education in Australian Aboriginal art

Photo: Darby Jampijinpa Ross, "Ngapapkurlangu (Rainwater Dreaming)," 1989.

From time to time on this blog I have featured photos of Australian indigenous art from Will Owen's Aboriginal Art & Culture: an American eye.

I first really became aware of current indigenous art back in the 1970s when I used to browse through a small gallery in the Canberra suburb of Manuka. I was interested because Australian pre-history formed a key part of my honours degree at the University of New England.

Will has a particular focus on remote area art. His blog is a key resource for all those wishing to access this part of the Australian regional experience.

Aboriginal art - relevant blogs

Photo: Will Owen Pansy Napangardi (at Ngurratjuta, Alice Springs)

Back in August 07, I carried an introductory post on Aboriginal art referring to Will Owen's Aboriginal Art & Culture: an American eye as a valuable entry point.

Aboriginal art, especially Top End art, has become very popular in Australia and internationally in part because of its designs and use of colour. This captures some of the essence of this part of Australia.

Will's blog, itself a valuable source of information, recently carried some links to other relevant blogs.

Edwina Circuitt's Thriving in the Desert deals especially with the Warakurna Artists Aboriginal Corporation in Western Australia and related topics. The blog's sidebar gas a series of very useful links.

Dianna Mary has been posting on Remote Life since the beginning of 2007 on day to day life as art centre manager in Central Australia.

Durrmu Arts, written by Harriet Fesq out of the newly reconstituted art centre serving the Peppimenarti community is newer, making its debut in September 2007.

Remotely Convinced is the latest entry into the art centre blogosphere that Will is aware of. He notes that Sara Twigg-Patterson recently left Tjala Arts in Amata, South Australia, to take on the daunting task of building a functioning art centre in Papunya.

Aboriginal Art - a personal note

Photo: Darwin Supreme Court: a group of nine larrakitj, or ceremonial log coffins presented by the Dhudi Djapu clan of Dhuruputjpi.

I hope that I have got the link right on this on.

One of my favourite blogs is Will Owen's Aboriginal Art and Culture: an American Eye.

Growing up, we painted stones in primary school in the Aboriginal style. There was a fair bit of Aboriginal material around.

Then in the seventies and eighties all this seemed to disappear as Australia focused instead on the wrongs of past Aboriginal/European relations rather then the Aborigines themselves.

Today in modern Australia with its multiple ethnic groups, Aboriginal art is coming back. To more traditional Australians such as myself, Aboriginal art resonates because it is an expression of the relationship between humankind and the Australian environment.

I wish I knew more about the different streams in Aboriginal art. One day I will learn. For the moment, I will simply enjoy.

John Brack - an Australian Regional Artist

Photo: John Brack, Menswear, 1953.

It amy seem odd to include a story on John Brack, a Melbourne resident and one of Australia's most famous painters, in a blog focused on life outside Australia's metro centres. Yet Brack was also first and foremost a regional artist, if one focused on the life and suburbs of Melbourne.

In the words of Australia's National Gallery:

John Brack was one of Australia's most outstanding artists. He was born in Melbourne in 1920, and his work first achieved prominence in the 1950s. For over forty years he was at the forefront of Australian art and produced some of our most iconic images. More than any other Australian artist of his generation, Brack was a painter of modern life - its starkness, its shadows and its brooding self-reflection. His work is characterised by a kind of caustic realism and a strong sense of alienation, undercut with dry, sardonic humour.

Nearly all of Australia's artists are in fact regional artists in that their work reflects and is influenced by local conditions. We need to understand this if we are to understand their life and work.