Australian Art.

3/5/2012
(week 12)




Notes from today's class:


Major influences / most recognisable names at the time were Albert Namatjira (water colour) and Margaret Preston (painting).


These artists helped address issues of race, gender and identity in Australia in their own way.


Margaret Preston helped get art in Australia up and running thanks to all the influence she returned home with from her travels abroad. Which she shared with the artistic community within Australia.


There was a massive cultural change amongst white-man following the American consumerism boom. A large influx of immigrants came to Australia looking for a better life and work, but traditional aboriginals remained largely untouched and cut off from society. They were also still frowned upon by most people within society.


It was Rex Battarbee who would un-knowingly (or knowingly) train an aboriginal artist by the name of Albert Namatjira in water colour painting. Not sure how it all came about, but it certainly created a stir amongst the general public and the art world for they saw it as exploitation.


Once this raised a bit of interest, Namatjira ended up becoming a HUGE name in Australia and reached a celebrity status - mainly due to the hype of including an aboriginal as a recognised talented artist.


Society suffocated Namatjira and he was constantly on demand and overwhelmed by gifts from big companies of the day.


To his credit though, Namatjira loved being away from all this and was happy to just stick to painting "his land" - part of the Australian landscape that was free from any real human presence or impact from society.


His work demonstrated a high level of skill with the water colour medium, he painted freely and often with a simple setup out in the open. There was never any figures in his work, just all the natural elements that made up the landscape in front of him. I fully respect that.


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Margaret on the other hand was the complete opposite to Namatjira.


She came from a wealthy lifestyle, mixed with people in high-society and was extremely well educated. Her skills as an artist were much like herself, strong, bold and adaptable.


Elements of numerous styles and movements from around the world can be found in her paintings. As we inspected a small number of her work within the National Gallery of Australia today, i noticed a strong influence from Japan and the cubist periods.


Her travels abroad, unlike Namatjira, opened her up to much influence and she made sure she demonstrated elements of each in her work from time to time and allowed it all to build into something she could attempt to then classify as being unique to Australia, because she was determined to give Australia it's own stand on the art world. Funny thing now is, as much as Margaret tried, Aboriginal Art is what is seen as our trademark (so to speak).


Another information-packed class, thanks Tess.






D.