Australian Aboriginal Art

•Australian Aboriginal art is art made by the Indigenous peoples of Australia . •Aboriginal people are known to be one of the oldest continual civilizations in the world. Remains have been found dating back 40,000 years.

•Stories were conveyed through spoken narratives, performed as dances or songs, and painted.

• Paintings include works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpture, ceremonial clothing and sand painting.

Australian Aboriginal Art

Rock art• The earliest Aboriginal art was paintings

or engravings on boulders or on the walls of rock shelters and caves.

• Aboriginal People create art as a way to reclaim their loss and share their histories.

• The cave paintings were made by using fine grass and fingers.

• Stenciling was done where the ochre was put in the mouth and then blown against the object such as a hand.

Rock Art

Ochre Paintings• The Aboriginals used crushed rocks called

ochre and termite mounds then mixed it with water or animal blood to enrich the color.

• Ochre is found in white, red and yellow.

• Paintings were made on rocks and barks.

• Ochre was also used in a similar method for body painting and also for ground paintings.

• Flowers, feathers, leaves, plants and grass were also used to color the various designs.

•Bark Paintings are thought to be the oldest form of indigenous art but this is hampered by the lack of longevity of the works. •Bark was stripped from trees and cured by drying.

• Designs were applied to the bark with a thin piece of grass forming very fine patterns known as rarrk or crosshatching.

Bark Paintings

• Cross-hatching is perhaps one of the most distinctive and beautiful features of Aboriginal art.

• Closely spaced fine lines are drawn in particular colours intersecting each other.

• The chosen colours may be specific to a particular clan, and the effect is difficult to describe, but produces a deep impression on the viewer.

Cross-Hatching Paintings

• The "X-ray" tradition is thought to have developed around 2000 B.C. and continues to the present day.

• As its name implies, the X-ray style depicts animals or human figures in which the internal organs and bone structures are clearly visible.

X-ray Paintings

The Dreamtime

• The expression 'Dreamtime' is often used to refer to the 'time before time', or 'the time of the creation of all things’.

• The Dreamtime for Aboriginal people is the time when the earth received its present form.

• The Dreamtime reflected the events and characters of daily life in the Australian desert.

• While 'Dreaming' is often used to refer to an individual's or group's beliefs.

Dreamtime

• Dot Painting originated in the desert using natural substances in the sand.

• The canvas is covered in small dots of paint which create patterns and symbols.

• Bright colors are now more common with the use of acrylic paint, but traditional dot painters used natural pigments such as ochre, crushed seeds, sand, blood, coal from their fires and plant material .

Dot Paintings

Symbols, Icons, and Imagery

campfire campCampfire or waterhole

gathering shelter meeting place

Symbols

Symbols, Icons, and Imagery

Travelling, circles are resting places or campsites

People sitting

Women and children: teaching

Women around campfire with digging stick

Entrance to goanna

burrow

Entrance to goanna burrow in spinifex

country

Symbols

•In July 1971, an art teacher Geoffrey Bardon distributed some brushes, paints and other material to a group of old men.

•They started painting because they were bored and wanted to pass time.

•They painted a mural on a whitewashed schoolhouse wall.

•In 1972, with his assistance, 11 of the men formed a cooperative called ‘Papunya Tula’.

Contemporary Aboriginal Art

.

•Papunya Tula is the most prestigious Australian contemporary art. Featuring bold geometric designs in earth tones, with characteristic circles, dots and wavy snake like lines. •The people of the desert have transferred their symbols and designs of their dreaming stories and ceremonies to canvas using acrylic paints.•However as the movement grew the colors used expanded to just about anything you can imagine.

Contemporary Aboriginal Art

.

.