Aboriginal Art: Who was interested?

Abstract

This paper addresses the common assumption that Aboriginal art has been absent from Australian art histories and demonstrates how this is not so. It criticises the notion that art history should be represented by specialised art-history books and argues for the important of art museum displays as texts. It also examines the ways in which Aboriginal art has been examined in literature devoted to Australian history and anthropology. It foregrounds the idea that arts history is not necessarily best represented by official art historical texts.

Keywords

• Aboriginal Art
• George Grey
• Joan Kerr
• Mary Eagle
• Andrew Sayers and Carol Cooper
• Baldwin Spencer
• National Museum of Victoria
• Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Bernard Smith
• Charles P. Mountford
• Tony Tuckson