Modern Aboriginal Paintings
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
At the crossroads of ancient tradition and twentieth-century artistic discovery, Modern Aboriginal Paintings presents an extraordinary visual chronicle of one of the world's oldest living art traditions, brought to international audiences through the passionate advocacy of Rex and Bernice Battarbee. The text documents the remarkable watercolour works of the Hermannsburg School artists — most notably the celebrated Albert Namatjira — whose vivid depictions of the Central Australian landscape captivated the Western art world and irrevocably altered perceptions of Indigenous Australian creativity. With the authority of first-hand witnesses, the Battarbees guide the reader through the arid splendour of the MacDonnell Ranges, situating each painting within its profound cultural and geographical context. Beyond its role as an art catalogue, this landmark volume argues persuasively for the legitimacy and vitality of Aboriginal artistic expression at a time when such recognition was far from guaranteed, making it a significant document of both art history and cultural politics. Rex Battarbee's own deep connection to the Arrernte people — having taught Namatjira the watercolour medium — lends the text an intimate authority that no outside observer could replicate. The result is a work that is simultaneously a celebration, a historical record, and a challenge to the reader: to look again at a landscape and a people whose story is far richer than Western eyes had yet allowed themselves to see.
Author: Rex And Bernice Battarbee
Format: Hardback
Published: 1951, Robert Hale & Company
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
At the crossroads of ancient tradition and twentieth-century artistic discovery, Modern Aboriginal Paintings presents an extraordinary visual chronicle of one of the world's oldest living art traditions, brought to international audiences through the passionate advocacy of Rex and Bernice Battarbee. The text documents the remarkable watercolour works of the Hermannsburg School artists — most notably the celebrated Albert Namatjira — whose vivid depictions of the Central Australian landscape captivated the Western art world and irrevocably altered perceptions of Indigenous Australian creativity. With the authority of first-hand witnesses, the Battarbees guide the reader through the arid splendour of the MacDonnell Ranges, situating each painting within its profound cultural and geographical context. Beyond its role as an art catalogue, this landmark volume argues persuasively for the legitimacy and vitality of Aboriginal artistic expression at a time when such recognition was far from guaranteed, making it a significant document of both art history and cultural politics. Rex Battarbee's own deep connection to the Arrernte people — having taught Namatjira the watercolour medium — lends the text an intimate authority that no outside observer could replicate. The result is a work that is simultaneously a celebration, a historical record, and a challenge to the reader: to look again at a landscape and a people whose story is far richer than Western eyes had yet allowed themselves to see.