The "art" of an Australian locum
Seven of the '50 Most Collectible Artists' listed by this year's Art Collector Magazine are Aboriginal Australians. Despite the remoteness of many of the areas where these artists live, not to mention the health issues and poverty experienced within these communities, there are now estimates that this Aboriginal art industry is worth half a billion dollars and growing.
While cultures worldwide have been vying for accolades from the art world for centuries, Aboriginal artists can claim with a confident air of aplomb to be "the world’s longest continuous tradition” and garner few objections - Aborigines have been creating art for nearly 40,000 years!
Prior to the European occupation of Australia, Aborigines were creating art out of anything they could get their hands on: clay, wood and rock for carvings, ochres for painting on bodies and bark, and everything from grass to rushes to roots for weaving. A few of their art forms, like body decoration by scarring, have declined or disappeared since European settlement. However, the Aboriginals have continued in old traditions; they've even adopted and expanded the use of new techniques, including painting on paper and canvas.
In 1989, the work of Emily Kngwarreye (right) - who didn't take up painting seriously until she was 80 - helped Aboriginal art jump headlong into the mainstream art world. She was from the Utopia community (north east of the portal to the Northern Territory
and the Outback, where it just so happens we have locum opportunities), and had some paintings in an an exhibition organized by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA). Kngwarreye's work got immediate attention from critics, coinciding with a worldwide art boom. Kngwarreye's styles, which changed every year, were seen as a mixture of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary Australian. Her rise in popularity led to a resurgence of Indigenous art and has made work from Australia’s central, northern and western regions highly sought-after.
The popularity of these artists and the resulting pressure placed upon them became such an issue, however, that some art centers have stopped selling
these artists' paintings online - instead placing clients on waiting lists with as many as 50 other prospective collectors. There have been cases of exploitative dealers (or "carpetbaggers") that have sought to profit from the success of the Aboriginal art movements. Thus, in 2006 the Australian Senate initiated an inquiry, which ultimately handed down a report
offering greater policing and a code of ethics across the sector.
Whereas most western artists do work as individuals, most contemporary Aboriginal art is created in community groups and art centers. Kngwarreye, for instance, rarely spent any of the money she got from her works herself, it went to friends and relatives; even supplying a car a week to her community. Today, many of the Aborigine art centers operate online art galleries where local and international visitors can purchase works directly from the communities without the need of going through an intermediary. With pieces that range from several-hundred to several-hundred-thousand dollars, art is increasingly becoming a significant source of income and livelihood for some of these communities.
An authentic piece of Aboriginal art may be just the thing for your home. Check out this online gallery and find a piece that speaks to you, then head for a locum assignment in Australia and bring back a token of your time Down Under.
What do you think about...Aboriginal art?