Indigenous Australian art
Australian Aboriginal art is attributed to the indigenous Australian people and represents one of the world’s unique cultures. The major categories of Australian indigenous art include rock carvings, leaf paintings, sand paintings, rock engravings, aerial landscape art, stone arrangements, ceremonial clothing, and sculpture. These traditional pieces of art represent the unique Australian culture from the way the pieces of art were created by the artists.
Some of the commonly used styles in indigenous rock painting include dot-painting and stencil art. The rock art highlighted themes like religion, the environment, economy, and social activities. The fine painting category was adequately represented by bark paintings. Indigenous Australian art is characterized by a lot of imagery that depicted the origin of the artist and the themes in the paintings.
Colonial art
Colonial art is highly regarded in Australia because of the artistic flair it represents. Colonial art is chronological in nature because it depicts the changes that took place in Australia over time. The colonial paintings are widely known for their aesthetic appeal that was achieved by the use of soft and light colors. The paintings brought out the beautiful nature of the environment as depicted in the landscapes. Colonial art portrayed a peaceful co-existence of people in society.
Colonial paintings passed across positive and encouraging messages that would give future settlers a sense of optimism. The artists used art to record significant events and this makes colonial art a good source of information for historians and other social researchers. Most of the symbols in colonial art represent wealth and class because the paintings were mostly done by prominent people.
Landscape
Landscape art represents the physical aspects of the earth. This category of art is very broad because of the many varieties of landscapes present on earth. Australian landscape paintings depict the natural sceneries and artists with paintings that demonstrate the best representation of the natural scenes are regarded as the best. The sky and the weather form the basic elements of landscape elements. Australian landscape art was largely influenced by Chinese and Japanese cultures. Early landscape paintings had less imagery and represented the real images in the paintings. Most Australian landscape paintings were made using distinctive landscapes. The traditional Australian landscape paintings were made using oil paints and watercolor sketches.
Atelier
Atelier is a unique form of Australian art that emphasizes the concept of realism. Atelier paintings pay much attention to the details of the subject. This type of art borrows most of its characteristics from the traditional European culture. The atelier method involves professional artists and apprentices who make paintings and other pieces of art in a workshop or studio. This method began in Australia after the establishment of a museum in Melbourne.
The students are trained by their instructors in creating representational drawings. According to the atelier method, the paintings have to look very real as an actual representation of the real object. Ateliers ensure that the dimensions of the subject and the painting are similar. The main objective of the atelier method is to facilitate the representation of actual images without the help of any mechanical means. The system progression approach is used by instructors to ensure that the students comprehensively understand one concept before progressing to the next.
Modernism
Modernist art in Australia faced a great challenge in combining the popular traditional art with modern artistic concepts. Modern artists view things in a different manner and their concepts lean more towards abstraction rather than traditional idealism. Modernism art in Australia emphasizes realism as a way of representing subjects. Modern art gives the paintings an emotional touch compared to conservative traditional artistic paintings. Modernism art advocates for realism as a way of comprehensively representing various human experiences
Contemporary art
Contemporary Australian art is a collection of different artistic ideas from all over the world. Contemporary art uses a variety of media ranging from digital media to the traditional categories of drawings and paintings. One of the recent categories is conceptual art that provides more information about art and object status.
Indigenous Australian art (Australian Aboriginal art)
Australian Aboriginal art makes the Australian culture to be very unique. The imagery in Aboriginal paintings and other pieces of art represent the sacred culture of Australia. The mythical undertones carried by the traditional Aboriginal art gives the paintings a spiritual meaning. This is one of the most distinctive features of Aboriginal art. Totem representation and storytelling are all part of Aboriginal art.
The Aboriginal Pieces of art represented many details and information about the origin and culture of the artist. The other unique feature of Aboriginal art is the use of blue circles as a symbol of water. The Aboriginal artists used locally available materials and few colors to make their paintings. The symbols used in Aboriginal vary from one region to another. Each tribe or region has its unique symbols of representing features in a painting.
Arthur Streeton was an Australia Landscape painter, what are some of his achievements, and why are these achievements significant in contributing to Australia’s Visual Arts.
Streeton is a famous Australian artist whose contributions have had a profound effect on the Australian art industry. Streeton worked very hard to solve the problem of light and heat in art. He organized an exhibition together with other young artists in 1889 as a way of rebelling against the influence of traditional paintings. Throughout his career, Streeton was an art instructor who played a major role in promoting modern art in Australia.
His passion to impart artistic knowledge inspired him to open a teaching studio together with his friend Roberts. During the First World War, Streeton used his skills in landscape art to make war paintings. His painting depicted the desperate nature of a war environment and is remembered as one of the pioneers of war art. His later paintings represented a pastoral Australia due to their romantic touch.
“Sunbaker” is a 1973 photograph by Australian modernist photographer Max Dupain. What are some of the significant aspects? What was the photographer try to express? How was the culture of Australia depicted in this photograph?
Sunbaker is a modernist photograph taken by one of the most celebrated Australian photographers known as Max Dupain. The photograph was taken from a low angle and shows a man lying on his stomach on the beach. The head and shoulders are the only visible features of the man. The photograph was taken at a low angle to prevent other features of the subject from being seen. The back of the subject is completely exposed to the sun. The skin is sparkling because of the sweat and ocean water. The photograph is influenced by the vitalism concept that depicts the man in a relaxed posture. The upper part of the photograph is occupied by the subject.
The overhead sun casts a shadow on the subject and makes the lower part of the photograph to look bright. This is a clear representation of the ideal Australian way of life. The photograph symbolizes vitality and health in an outdoor environment. The photograph is widely influenced by modern artistic concepts. The photograph looks very simple but portrays a lot of information. The fact that it is black and white portrays the multicultural nature of Australia. The photograph represents the general culture of relaxation and vitality in Australia.
Australia is a multicultural country, how does multiculturalism have an impact on Australia’s Visual Arts? Focus on pop-culture such as Japanese Manga and Anime.
Australia is a multicultural country and this affects all aspects of life including art. Most of the influence is from Europe and Eastern Asia. Japanese Pop culture is one of the major influences of Eastern Asia. Anime and Manga have greatly influenced the Australian visual arts industry. Manga is a book with drawings depicting various aspects of life and is always published in black and white. Most of the features in Manga drawings are exaggerated.
This culture has spread all over the world and Australia is one of the countries affected by this new method of drawing. The Australian Visual Arts industry is booming because of Japanese influence. Anime is the other type of Japanese art that is popular in Australia. Anime refers to a type of animation art that is quite different from the other types of animations. The character and backgrounds are generated by computers or by hand. The Anime style of art is very flexible and depends on the artist’s preferred genre and audience.
Anime and Manga styles have found a lot of use in the development of computer games and cartoons. Manga is basically printed cartoons that are often full of humor. The incorporation of Manga and Anime styles in Australian visual art has given it a more modern look. Cartoons and animations can be created for all generations. Australia was influenced a great deal by the Asian artistic styles than the western concepts. The above examples demonstrate how multiculturalism can bring out some positive impacts especially in the field of art. The external influence helped a great deal in promoting contemporary visual art in Australia.