Australian art is a broad spectrum ofart created in or aboutAustralia, or by Australians overseas, spanning fromprehistoric times to the present day. The art forms include, but are not limited to,Aboriginal, Colonial,Landscape,Atelier, andContemporary art.
The visual arts in Australia have a rich and extensive history, with Aboriginal art dating back at least 30,000 years. The country has been the birthplace of many notable artists from bothWestern andIndigenous Australian schools. These include the late-19th-centuryHeidelberg School plein air painters, theAntipodeans, the Central AustralianHermannsburg School watercolorists, and theWestern Desert Art Movement. The Australian art scene also features significant examples ofHigh modernism andPostmodern art.
The ancestors ofAboriginal Australians are believed to have arrived in Australia as early as 60,000 years ago, and evidence ofIndigenous Australian art in Australia can be traced back at least 30,000 years.[1] Examples of ancient Aboriginal rock artworks can be found throughout the continent. Notable examples can be found in national parks, such as those of theUNESCO listed sites atUluru andKakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, and theGwion Gwion rock paintings in theKimberley region of Western Australia. Rock art can also be found within protected parks in urban areas such asKu-ring-gai Chase National Park in Sydney.[2][3][4] TheSydney rock engravings are approximately 5000 to 200 years old.Murujuga in Western Australia has the Friends of Australian Rock Art advocating its preservation, and the numerous engravings there were heritage listed in 2007.[5][6]
In terms of age and abundance, cave art in Australia is comparable to that ofLascaux andAltamira in Europe,[7] and Aboriginal art is believed to be the oldest continuing tradition of art in the world.[8] There are three major regional styles: the geometric style found in Central Australia, Tasmania, the Kimberley and Victoria known for its concentric circles, arcs and dots; the simple figurative style found inQueensland; the complex figurative style found in Arnhem Land which includes X-Ray art.[9] These designs generally carry significance linked to the spirituality of theDreamtime.[10]
William Barak (c. 1824–1903) was one of the last traditionally educated of theWurundjeri-Willam people who come from the district now incorporating the city of Melbourne. He remains notable for his artworks which recorded traditional Aboriginal ways for the education of Westerners (which remain on permanent exhibition at theIan Potter Centre of theNational Gallery of Victoria and theBallarat Fine Art Gallery).Margaret Preston (1875–1963) was among the early non-indigenous painters to incorporate Aboriginal influences in her works.Albert Namatjira (1902–1959) is a famous Australian artist and anArrernte man. His landscapes inspired theHermannsburg School of art.[11]Elizabeth Durack's works, which notably fuse Western and indigenous influences, are significant. Since the 1970s, indigenous artists have employed the use of acrylic paints – with styles such as theWestern Desert Art Movement becoming globally renowned 20th-century art movements.
TheNational Gallery of Australia exhibits a great many indigenous art works, including those of theTorres Strait Islands who are known for their traditional sculpture and headgear.[12] TheArt Gallery of New South Wales has an extensive collection of indigenous Australian art.[3] In May 2011, the Director of the Place, Evolution, and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU) atGriffith University,Paul Taçon, called for the creation of a national database for rock art.[13] Paul Taçon launched the "Protect Australia's Spirit" campaign in May 2011 with the Australian actorJack Thompson.[14] This campaign aims to create the very first fully resourced national archive to bring together information about rock art sites, as well as planning for future rock art management and conservation. The National Rock Art Institute would bring together existing rock art expertise fromGriffith University,Australian National University, and theUniversity of Western Australia if they were funded by philanthropists, big business and government.Rock Art Research is published twice a year and also covers international scholarship of rock art.
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The first artistic representations of the Australia scene by European artists were mainlynatural history illustrations, depicting the distinctive flora and fauna of the land for scientific purposes, and the topography of the coast.Sydney Parkinson, thebotanical illustrator onJames Cook's 1770 voyage that first charted the eastern coastline of Australia, made a large number of such drawings under the direction of naturalistJoseph Banks. Many of these drawings were met with scepticism when taken back to Europe, for example claims that theplatypus was a hoax. In the form of copies and reproductions,George Stubbs' 1772 paintingsPortrait of a Large Dog andThe Kongouro from New Holland—depicting a dingo and kangaroo respectively—were the first images of Australian fauna to be widely disseminated in Britain.
Early Western art in Australia, from British colonisation in 1788 onwards, is often narrated as the gradual shift from a European sense of light to an Australian one. The lighting in Australia is notably different from that of Europe, and early attempts at landscapes attempted to reflect this. It has also been one of transformation, where artistic ideas originating from beyond (primarily Europe) gained new meaning and purpose when transplanted into the new continent and the emerging society.[15]
Despite Banks' suggestions, no professional natural-history artist sailed on theFirst Fleet in 1788. Until the turn of the century all drawings made in the colony were crafted by soldiers, including British naval officersGeorge Raper andJohn Hunter, and convict artists, includingThomas Watling.[16] However, many of these drawings are by unknown artists, most notably thePort Jackson Painter. Most are in the style of naval draughtsmanship, and cover natural history topics, specifically birds, and a few depict the infant colony itself.
Several professional natural-history illustrators accompanied expeditions in the early 19th century, includingFerdinand Bauer, who travelled withMatthew Flinders, andCharles-Alexandre Lesueur, who travelled with a French expedition led byNicolas Baudin. The first resident professional artist wasJohn Lewin,[16] who arrived in 1800 and published two volumes of natural history art. OrnithologistJohn Gould was renowned for his illustrations of the country's birds.[16] In the late 19th centuryHarriet andHelena Scott were highly respected natural history illustrators[17]Lewin'sPlatypus (1808) represents the fine detail and scientific observation displayed by many of these early painters.
As well as inspiration in natural history, there were some ethnographic portraiture ofAboriginal Australians, particularly in the 1830s. Artists includedAugustus Earle inNew South Wales[16] andBenjamin Duterrau,Robert Dowling and the sculptor Benjamin Law, recording images ofAboriginal Tasmanians.
The most significant landscape artist of this era[15] wasJohn Glover. Heavily influenced by 18th-century European landscape painters, such asClaude Lorraine andSalvator Rosa, his works captured the distinctive Australian features of open country, fallen logs, and blue hills.[18]
Conrad Martens (1801–1878) worked from 1835 to 1878 as a professional artist, painting many landscapes and was commercially successful. His work has been regarded as softening the landscape to fit European sensibilities.[16] His watercolour studies of Sydney Harbour are well regarded, and seen as introducingRomantic ideals to his paintings.[18] Martens is also remembered for accompanying scientistCharles Darwin onHMS Beagle (as hadAugustus Earle).
From 1851, theVictorian gold rush resulted in a huge influx of settlers and new wealth.S. T. Gill (1818–1880) documented life on the Australian gold fields,[16] however the colonial art market primarily desired landscape paintings, which were commissioned by wealthy landowners or merchants wanting to record their material success.[19]
William Piguenit's (1836–1914) "Flood in the Darling" was acquired by the National Gallery of New South Wales in 1895.[20]
Some of the artists of note includedEugene von Guerard,Nicholas Chevalier,William Strutt,John Skinner Prout andKnud Bull.
Louis Buvelot was a key figure in landscape painting in the later period. He was influenced by theBarbizon school painters, and so using aplein air technique, and a more domesticated and settled view of the land, in contrast to the emphasis on strangeness or danger prevalent in earlier painters. This approach, together with his extensive teaching influence, have led his to dubbed the "Father of Landscape Painting in Australia".[18]
A few attempts at art exhibitions were made in the 1840s, which attracted a number of artists but were commercial failures. By the 1850s, however, regular exhibitions became popular, with a variety of art types represented. The first of these exhibitions was in 1854 in Melbourne. An art museum, which eventually became theNational Gallery of Victoria, was founded in 1861, and it began to collect Australian works as well as gathering a collection of European masters. Crucially, it also opened an art school, important for the following generations of Australian-born and raised artists.
Henry James Johnstone (also known as H. J. Johnstone), a professional photographer and student of Buvelot, painted the large-scale bush sceneEvening Shadows (1880), the first acquisition of theArt Gallery of South Australia and possibly Australia's most reproduced painting.[21]
The origins of a distinctly Australian painting tradition is often associated with theHeidelberg School of the late 19th century. Named after a campTom Roberts andArthur Streeton established inHeidelberg (then a rural suburb on the outskirts of Melbourne), these painters, together withFrederick McCubbin,Charles Conder[22] and others, began an impressionisticplein air approach to the Australian landscape that remains embedded in Australia's popular consciousness, both in and outside the art world.
Many of their most famous works depict scenes of pastoral and outback Australia. Central themes of their art include manual labour, conquering the land,[15] and an idealisation of the rural pioneer.[18] By the 1890s most Australians were city-dwellers, as were the artists themselves, and a romantic view of pioneer life gave great power and popularity to images such asShearing the Rams.[18] In this work Roberts uses formal composition and strong realism to dignify the shearers[18] whilst the relative anonymity of the men and their subdued expressions, elevate their work as the real subject, rather that the specific individuals portrayed.[15]
In their portrayal of the nobility of rural life, the Heidelberg artists reveal their debt toMillet,Bastien-Lepage andCourbet, but the techniques and aims of the FrenchImpressionists provide more direct inspiration and influenced their actual practise. In their early and extremely influentialExhibition of 9 by 5 Impressions of small sketches, their impressionistic programme was clear, as evidenced from their catalogue: "An effect is only momentary: so an impressionist tries to find his place... it has been the object of artists to render faithfully, and thus obtain first records of effects widely differing, and often of very fleeting character."[18]
Other significant painters associated with the Heidelberg painters wereWalter Withers, who won the inauguralWynne Prize in 1896,[22] andJane Sutherland, a student of McCubbin. Born and raised in Sydney, impressionistJohn Russell spent much of his career in Europe, where he befriended the likes ofVincent van Gogh andClaude Monet. He also wrote letters home to his friend, Tom Roberts, updating him on developments in French impressionism.
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In 1901, the six self-governing Australian coloniesfederated to form a unified nation. Artists such asHans Heysen andElioth Gruner built on the Australian landscape tradition of the Heidelberg painters, creating grand, nationalist pastoral landscapes. Others moved on to successful careers in London and Paris, such asRupert Bunny andHugh Ramsay.
Among the public, through the 1920s, modified forms of Impressionism were popular, withElioth Gruner being considered the last of the Australian Impressionists.[23] TheAustralian Tonalist movement, originating in the writings and teaching ofMax Meldrum, followed a 'scientific' transcription of tonal relations, making 'impressionism' a system, and opposedModernist art then emerging pre-WW2 in theAngry Penguins and theHeide Circle influenced by refugees from Europe, and Australian-born artists' visits to England and France. Conservatives' attitudes to 'modern art' prevailed until the 1960s, institutionalised in theAustralian Academy of Art (1937–1947), opposed by such groups as theContemporary Art Society (established 1938 and continuing).[20]
The 1950s restored an interest in theOutback as subject matter in Australian art.[23]Russell Drysdale andSidney Nolan toured the interior, sponsored by newspapers to document drought. They andAlbert Tucker, in hisExplorer series, sought to capture the ancient strangeness and a cruel infinity of the central Australian landscape.[23]
Splatt and Burton (1977) consider the 1960s a period in which public attention was being drawn to urban bushland and that landscape paintings of the 1970s carried through on the themes of environmental preservation and threats of destruction.[23]
Australia has major art museums and galleries subsidised by the national and state governments, as well as private art museums and small university and municipal galleries. TheNational Gallery of Australia, theGallery of Modern Art and theArt Gallery of New South Wales have major strengths in collecting the art of the Asia Pacific Region. Others include theNational Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, which has a significant Australian collection of Western art.Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, and the privately ownedMuseum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania andWhite Rabbit Gallery in Sydney are widely regarded as autonomously discerning collections of international contemporary art.
Other institutions include theArt Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide, Newcastle Art Gallery, theNational Portrait Gallery of Australia, theNational Museum of Australia, theCanberra Museum and Gallery, theTasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart, theMuseum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, and theArt Gallery of Western Australia in Perth. A network of regional public galleries have existed since the mid-1800s and one,Castlemaine Art Museum, is unique in specialising in Australian art. TheState Library of New South Wales holds a significant collection comprising more than a quarter of a million artworks,[24] many from the colonial period. More material is held by other national and state libraries.
The boom and bust cycle in contemporary art is evident in the 1980s colonial art boom ending at the time of the1987 stock market crash and the exit of many artists and dealers, followed by the 2000s boom in Aboriginal dot painting and Australian late modernist painting, which ended at the time of the2008 financial crisis and growing collector and public interest in the international contemporary art circuit.
A 5% resale royalty scheme commenced in 2010 under which artists receive 5% of the sale price when eligible artworks are resold commercially for $1000 or more. Between 10 June 2010 and 15 May 2013, the scheme generated over $1.5 million in royalties for 610 artists.[25] Some buyers object to paying any resale royalty while others do not mind a royalty going directly to the artists. However, they worry about further red tape and bureaucratic interference.
In 2014/15 there was a rediscovery of colonial art at auction. Affordable 20th-century rural scene painting is buoyant. While the inflated northern hemisphere art markets had anticipating a massive correction in the Australian art market which transitioned to the middle market.
Socially oriented art events such as art fairs and biennials have continued to grow in size and popularity in the contemporary art scene.[26][27]
The smaller commercial galleries have struggled to remain in business in the 2010s in spite of a functioning economy, although there is little consensus on the reasons for this.[28][29]
A new market has arisen in China, where Australian artists are selling works in a traditionally local market: "While the Chinese have always had a passion for traditional Chinese art, according to global auction house Sotheby's, the surging interest in contemporary international art is a recent trend."[30]
The market for Aboriginal art is still very strong, on the national and international stage, since becoming a solid financial investment in the 1980s.[31] Not only do all the regional and State Galleries acquire significant collections of Aboriginal art, but private galleries are showing featured artists abroad.[32] Aboriginal artists are also represented in all the major landscape prizes Australia.[33] In 2019, "the Wynne prize, worth $50,000, was won bySylvia Ken for her painting Seven Sisters – marking the fourth year in a row that the landscape prize has been won by Indigenous artists."[34]
The museum for Australian Aboriginal art 'La grange' inNeuchâtel, Switzerland, was one of the few museums in Europe that dedicated itself entirely to Aboriginal art.[35][36]