Contemporary Indigenous Australian art

rdf:langString Contemporary Indigenous Australian art

rdf:langString contemporary Indigenous Australian art

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rdf:langString "There is currently an upsurge in interest in Aboriginal art among the Australian public and overseas visitors...The resultant pressure on artists to produce has led ultimately to a collapse or emasculation of the art form. Aboriginal art is now under incredible strain to fulfil white demands on Aboriginal culture."

rdf:langString Indigenous Australian activist Djon Mundine, writing during Australia's bicentennial year, 1988.

rdf:langString Contemporary Indigenous Australian art (also known as contemporary Aboriginal Australian art) is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians, that is, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. It is generally regarded as beginning in 1971 with a painting movement that started at Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, involving Aboriginal artists such as Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, and facilitated by white Australian teacher and art worker Geoffrey Bardon. The movement spawned widespread interest across rural and remote Aboriginal Australia in creating art, while contemporary Indigenous art of a different nature also emerged in urban centres; together they have become central to Australian art. Indigenous art centres have fostered the emergence of the contemporary art movement, and as of 2010 were estimated to represent over 5000 artists, mostly in Australia's north and west. Contemporary Indigenous artists have won many of Australia's most prominent art prizes. The Wynne Prize has been won by Indigenous artists on at least three occasions, the Blake Prize for Religious Art was in 2007 won by Shirley Purdie with Linda Syddick Napaltjarri a finalist on three separate occasions, while the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award was won by John Mawurndjul in 2003 and Judy Watson in 2006. There is a national art prize for Indigenous artists, the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, which in 2013 was won by Jenni Kemarre Martiniello from Canberra. Indigenous artists, including Rover Thomas, have represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1990 and 1997. In 2007, a painting by Emily Kngwarreye, Earth's Creation, was the first Indigenous Australian art work to sell for more than A$1 million. Leading Indigenous artists have had solo exhibitions at Australian and international galleries, while their work has been included in major collaborations such as the design of the Musée du quai Branly. Works by contemporary Indigenous artists are held by all of Australia's major public galleries, including the National Gallery of Australia, which in 2010 opened a new wing dedicated to its Indigenous collection. The figurative "dot painting" produced by Western Desert artists is among the most well-known styles of contemporary Aboriginal art.

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