Art from the Land: Dialogues With the Kluge-Ruhe Collection of Australian Aboriginal Art

by Morphy, Howard; Boles, Margo Smith; University of Virginia

• ISBN13: 9780646370873
• ISBN10: 0646370871
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr

Summary

The art of Aboriginal Australia gives tangible expression to a particular way of being in the land. The Kluge-Ruhe Collection, now held by the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, is one of the largest and best-documented collections of Australian Aboriginal art outside Australia. Art from the Land focuses on the desert region and Arnhem Land, drawing on the many fine works in the collection and on the authors' detailed knowledge of the artists and their communities to illustrate the unique and complex nature of Australian Aboriginal artistic expression.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	iii
Introduction: The Kluge-Ruhe collection of Australian Aboriginal art	1	(26)
Margo Smith Boles
arnhem land
Setting the scene	25	(2)
Flesh, bone, and spirit: Western Arnhem Land bark painting	27	(30)
Luke Taylor
Life through art: Religion and society in eastern Arnhem Land	57	(28)
Howard Morphy
The land is full of signs: Central north east Arnhem Land art	85	(36)
Djon Mundine
Wagilak and Djang'kawu: Ancestral paintings in the public domain	121	(42)
Wally Caruana
the desert
Setting the scene	159	(4)
Touching the land: Towards an aesthetic of Balgo contemporary painting	163	(30)
Christine Watson
What an acrylic can mean: The meta-ritualistic resonances of a central desert painting	193	(26)
Francoise Dussart
Aesthetics and practice: A local art history of Pintupi painting	219	(42)
Fred Myers
Notes on the contributors	261	(1)
Notes on copyright	262	(1)
Index	263