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Ancient Endless Infinity: The Rise of Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Art

Thursday, April 16, 2015

1 pm EDT

Ngarra (Western Australian, 1920–2008). Stars and Moon Phases, 2005. Synthetic polymer paint on paper, 19.7 x 27.6 inches (50 x 70 cm). © Estate of the artist, courtesy Indigenart, Mossenson Galleries, Perth.

FREE with museum admission 
FREE for students with valid student IDs 
FREE for Members
Auditorium

The artistic traditions of Australia’s Aboriginal people stretches back over 50,000 years. For millennia, Aboriginal people have painted on rock faces, created ceremonial objects, and adorned their bodies in sacred designs. From the early twentieth century, Indigenous artists began producing art objects to trade and sell, inaugurating a powerful cross-cultural dialogue. In this lecture, curator and art historian Henry Skerritt will describe the rise of contemporary Aboriginal art, from the emergence of the modern bark painting movement in 1911, through the emergence of Western Desert acrylic painting in the 1970s, culminating in the flourishing and diverse practices of the present. In doing so, he will show how Aboriginal artists have preempted many of the critical concerns that dominate contemporary art. The last three decades have seen a remarkable expansion of the global reach of contemporary art. In this lecture, Skerritt will show how Aboriginal Australian artists are staking their claim to participate in this global future of art. In its ability to speak across cultural boundaries without forsaking its distinctive identity, Aboriginal art stands at the forefront of global contemporary art practice.

About the Lecturer

Henry F. Skerritt is a curator and art historian from Perth, Western Australia. He has recently co-organized the exhibition No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting, which is touring six U.S. museums during 2015–16. From 2004 to 2009 he was manager of Mossenson Galleries in Melbourne and, in 2011, he organized the exhibition Experimental Gentlemen at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne. Skerritt has written extensively on Aboriginal art and culture, including contributions to the publications Double Desire: Transculturation and Indigenous Contemporary Art (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2014), Crossing Cultures: The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art (Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2012), andMenagerie: Contemporary Indigenous Sculpture (Object: Australian Design Centre, 2009).