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Contemporary Indigenous Australian Art (ARHT2636)
Semester 2 / 2011

Texts

Aboriginal Art!$!Wally Caruana!$! !$!!$!
y separately published work icon The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture Sylvia Kleinert (editor), Margo Neale (editor), Robyne Bancroft (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 2000 Z937515 2000 reference prose criticism biography (taught in 3 units)

A comprehensive, generously illustrated reference work on a multitude of aspects of Aboriginal history, culture and art. Although the emphasis is on visual art and artists, the many survey entries on indigenous languages, traditions, writing and performance provide a much wider context.

The Companion is divided into two separate yet interconnected parts. Part One consist of essays by indigenous and non-indigenous scholars and experts, interspersed with textual and visual examples. Broadly chronological in structure, it contains the following sections: 'Foundations of Being' (subdivided into 'Religion', 'Ritual and Sacred Sites', 'Kinship and Gender'); 'Colonial and Post-colonial Scenes' (art and culture in different regions of Australia); 'Renegotiating Tradition' ('Urban Aboriginal Art', 'Film and Communications', 'Literature', 'Music', 'Performance', 'Fibre-work and Textiles', 'Cultural Meeting Places', buildings and architecture) ; 'The Public Face of Aboriginality' ('Aboriginalities', 'Reception and Recognition of Aboriginal Art', 'Cross-Cultural Exchange', 'The Way Ahead'). An index to Part One provides easy access to topics.

Part Two is organised as a reference section and consists of alphabetical entries on artists, organisations, key issues and ideas.

Aboriginal Art!$!Howard Murphy!$! !$!!$!

Description

This unit studies the efflorescence of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, which makes up over half of today's Australian art market. While providing a grounding in major movements like Papunya Tula (from 1971) and bark painting in Arnhem Land, the focus will be on critical and theoretical issues affecting art practice today: questions of appropriation and copyright, the relationship of art to native title and reconciliation, the market for Indigenous art (from prestigious auctions to tourist shops), the politics of curatorial practice, the changing status of women artists, the Indigenous use and re-use of photography, and the relevance of postmodern and postcolonial theories in reading urban art. Key figures treated will include Tracy Moffatt, Gordon Bennett, Rover Thomas and Emily Kngwarreye. Certain classes will be conducted at the Art Gallery of New South Wales or the Museum of Contemporary Art. Lecturers will include prominent Indigenous curators and artists.

Assessment

1x4000-4500 wd essay and 1x exhibition (100%)

Supplementary Texts

Murphy, Howard. Aboriginal Art. London: Phaidon, 1998.

Caruana, Wally. Aboriginal Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 1993

Kleinert, Sylvia and Margo Neale (eds). The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.

Other Details

Course Reader is available from the Uinversity Copy Centre


Offered in: 2009
Current Campus: Camperdown/Darlington
Levels: Undergraduate
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