Moving the body painting into the art gallery — knowing about and appreciating works of Aboriginal art

Abstract

The paper focuses on two kinds of relationship: between Western fine art and Indigenous art, and between anthropological and art historical approaches to understanding and appreciating works of art. The primary focus is on the process by which Australian Aboriginal art came to be incorporated within galleries of fine art. This process brought both kinds of relationships to the fore in the contemporary context and challenged established boundaries exemplified by the distinction between the museum and the art gallery. It is argued that objects encompassed within the category of fine art come from very different cultural traditions and historical backgrounds. The methods of both art history and anthropology can be productively applied in analysing the forms and significance of artworks in their social and cultural contexts. The paper concludes by considering some of the implications of the co-presence of artworks from different cultural traditions in the same contemporary gallery spaces.

Keywords

• Aboriginal art
• Yolngu
• anthropological approaches to art
• cross-cultural categories
• museums and galleries