Utopia artists - Creators of contemporary Australian Aboriginal art
It was 1970 when an art teacher from inner Syndey, Geoffrey Bardon, was appointed to the Papunya community, a remote Aboriginal camp west of Alice Springs. Faced with the bleak desolation of the camp and the harsh lives of the inhabitants, Bardon was at once entranced by the beautiful symbolic drawings and patterns the Indigenous men drew in the dust and sand. He supplied the men with paints and boards as a means of recording their legacy. Thus, the genesis of the Australian Aboriginal art movement – described by Professor of art history Ian McLean as "the most fabulous moment in Australian art history", and he considered that it was becoming one of Australia's founding myths, like the ANZAC spirit (McLean 2011:180-181)
Australia and the culture of indigenous paintings
Many Australians are now familiar with Aboriginal art, famous Indigenous Australian artists and the art movements from different areas of Australia, each with their distinctive style. Utopia Aboriginal art from the Central Desert region today follows the tradition of the highly successful and famous local artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye and is collected around the world, with many collectors seeking to buy a piece of their own to cherish and enjoy.
What we admire about these desert works is the combination of visual austerity and grandeur that they embody, evoking the sacred in ways many rarely witness. The aesthetic of desert art is a sublime marriage of the quintessential and the iconic. We are seduced by the formal brilliance and spectacular colours of these desert acrylics, but more so, by the possibility of a mutual metaphoric meaning below the imagery used to construct the surface of the paintings. The subtleties and mysteries of contemporary Australian Aboriginal art speak powerfully of our country and the cultural history of many thousands of years of mythology. The art of Indigenous Australia is truly one of Australia’s great wonders to behold.
In recent years, it has become evermore difficult to secure the best, authentic examples of Indigenous artworks by the leading contemporary desert artists. Delmore Gallery’s carefully selected paintings for sale assure good provenance and impeccable status, and art of exquisite visual resonance. We are proud to offer only the highest quality Australian Aboriginal art available, for sale online.
Browse our artworks for sale in Delmore Gallery’s online catalogue or contact us for further details.
