Modernism and the sovereign state: Indigenous Australian Art
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Begins: Tuesday 13 April 2027
Until: Wednesday 14 April 2027
(10:30 to 12:00 each day) - Online Zoom Event, link details will be emailed to attendees on the morning of the event
- Lecturer: Arjmand Aziz
Indigenous Australian artists created a new art movement in the nineteenth and twentieth century which has changed and challenged the course of national and international art fields to this day.
Although Indigenous Australian art has, in recent years, been increasingly exhibited and discussed in Britain, its history and development are largely unknown. We will examine how Indigenous Australian artists created a new art movement through the oeuvres of key artists, set within the social, political and legal context of the colonial and post-colonial nation state. We will follow the progression of Indigenous artistic modernism in colonial Australia, to regional and “Urban” post modernism, ending with an examination of Indigenous Australian Art now.
Day 1:
• “Isn’t it all dot painting?” What does “Indigenous” and “Australian” mean?
• The invention of bark painting: Arnhem Land and Baldwin Spencer.
• The first School of Indigenous art: Albert Namatjira and his descendants.
Day 2:
• Papunya Tula: Kaapa Tjampitjinpa and the Western Desert art movement,
• Biting into the heart of Modernism: Fiona Foley and Gordon Bennett.
• Many Nations, many Schools: Indigenous Australian art now.
Lecturer
Dr Arjmand Aziz is an Art Historian with research interests in contemporary Indigenous Australian art and South Asian art. She has a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art from the British Museum and a PhD in History of Art from SOAS University of London. Her advisory and curatorial work encompasses both British and Australian artists including Chila Kumari Burman, Penny Byrne and Luke Jerram.
She has designed and delivered many courses including; “Introduction to Indigenous Australian art” and “Indigenous Australia: the beginnings of the Western Desert art movement” for the Department of Art History at the City Literary Institute , “Indigenous Australian art” at the British Museum and “Emily Kam Kngwarray” at Tate Britain.