Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art
Large, bold, and colorful, indigenous Australian art—sometimes known as Aboriginal art—has made an indelible impression on the contemporary art scene. But it is controversial, dividing the artists, purveyors, and collectors from those who smell a scam. Whether the artists are victims or victors, there is no denying the impact of their work in the media, on art collectors and the art world at large, and on our global imagination. How did Australian art become the most successful indigenous form in the world? How did its artists escape the ethnographic and souvenir markets to become players in an art market to which they had historically been denied access? Beautifully illustrated, this full stunning account not only offers a comprehensive introduction to this rich artistic tradition, but also makes us question everything we have been taught about contemporary art.
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Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art
Large, bold, and colorful, indigenous Australian art—sometimes known as Aboriginal art—has made an indelible impression on the contemporary art scene. But it is controversial, dividing the artists, purveyors, and collectors from those who smell a scam. Whether the artists are victims or victors, there is no denying the impact of their work in the media, on art collectors and the art world at large, and on our global imagination. How did Australian art become the most successful indigenous form in the world? How did its artists escape the ethnographic and souvenir markets to become players in an art market to which they had historically been denied access? Beautifully illustrated, this full stunning account not only offers a comprehensive introduction to this rich artistic tradition, but also makes us question everything we have been taught about contemporary art.
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Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art

Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art

by Ian McLean
Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art

Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art

by Ian McLean

Hardcover

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Overview

Large, bold, and colorful, indigenous Australian art—sometimes known as Aboriginal art—has made an indelible impression on the contemporary art scene. But it is controversial, dividing the artists, purveyors, and collectors from those who smell a scam. Whether the artists are victims or victors, there is no denying the impact of their work in the media, on art collectors and the art world at large, and on our global imagination. How did Australian art become the most successful indigenous form in the world? How did its artists escape the ethnographic and souvenir markets to become players in an art market to which they had historically been denied access? Beautifully illustrated, this full stunning account not only offers a comprehensive introduction to this rich artistic tradition, but also makes us question everything we have been taught about contemporary art.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781780235905
Publisher: Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date: 07/15/2016
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 7.50(w) x 9.75(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Ian McLean is the Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australian Art History at the University of Melbourne. His books include Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art, also published by Reaktion Books.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction
Empire
                1 Origin stories: The dreamtime in Botany Bay, 1770
                2 Indigenous art and empire in Sydney, 1788-1830
                3 Post-contact indigenous art in the Australian colonies, 1835-1900
Nation
                4 Indigenous art in white Australia, 1900-1970
                5 The invention of indigenous contemporary art, 1970-1990
Post-Western
                6 Remote masters, 1985-2015
                7 Post-identity: Urban indigenous art
Conclusion: A theory of indigenous art in the age of modernity
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
 

What People are Saying About This

Terry Smith

Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art is the first comprehensive art historical account of this fascinating topic. It tells a clear and compelling story of the complex development of indigenous art in Australia, from the first encounters between indigenous and European explorers in the later eighteenth century right up to the present, as this ‘contact art’ manifests itself as one of the major movements within contemporary world art.”

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