Australian Aboriginal art is the most famous kind of art in Australia.
Aboriginal Art Facts: “Art Was their Written
Language”
Australian Aboriginal
People passed their knowledge, culture and beliefs on the new
generations through storytelling, dance and song. They never had a
written language, so there is no material that we can read that would
be written by early Aboriginal people.
They did however have a way to preserve their customs and beliefs for
future generations, and it was through their art. The art of Australian
indigenous people always has a meaning, it can be about their
lifestyle, their everyday life, beliefs, customs or ceremonies. A piece
of art of an animal for example means more than just a picture of an
animal, it can be their creation being, associated with their mythology.
A few added symbols can turn a painting
into a story.
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Aboriginal Art Facts: Naturalistic and Abstract
Just like modern art, Australian Aboriginal art was traditionally
either naturalistic or abstract. Naturalistic art means pictures,
paintings and engravings about animals,
people, something of a recognisable shape, while abstract art consists
of dots, lines, circles, u-shapes and other shapes and symbols which
have a meaning. They may not be so easy to understand for
non-aboriginal people, but Aboriginal people of each tribe knew their
symbols
and they could tell the story by just looking at a piece of abstract
art.
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The Naturalistic X-Ray Style of Northern Australia
In different parts of Australia, they had different trends, depending
on their environment and lifestyle. Northern Australia for example is
known for naturalistic art, particularly a style called X-ray art,
where on the paintings of humans and animals, internal organs were also
shown. There is a wide range of those paintings preserved in caves
across northern Australia, with some of the most famous examples in Kakadu
National Park in Northern Territory,
northern Kimberley
and around Laura
on Cape
York Peninsula.
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The Abstract Sand Paintings of Central Australia
Central Australia on the other hand is known for abstract paintings,
particularly their dot paintings.
They used to make dot paintings on the sand, using symbols as messages
for other people, or just as a culture lesson for their kids. These
sand paintings were of course not preserved because the first rain or a
bit of a wind would have destroyed them. Sometimes Aboriginal People
destroyed them themselves, if they were moving on to another place, and
the painting was about some secret knowledge that they didn’t want
other tribes to know about.
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Aboriginal Art Facts: Dot Paintings
So we don’t have historical examples of those sand paintings to go to.
What developed from them however, is the modern famous Aboriginal
dot paintings
that are nowadays painted on canvas, using acrylic paints. They use the
same symbols that were used in sand paintings, the only difference is
the modern materials. Those paintings have become highly popular in
Australia
as well as in the rest of the world. They are found everywhere in
Australian shops and art galleries, and they are shipped overseas for
people who buy them in other countries.
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