A Companion to Australian Art - (Blackwell Companions to Art History) by Christopher Allen (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Art in the Australian continent has two very different stories, which have become intertwined in recent times but can never be reduced to a single narrative. The first of these, of course, is the story of the art produced by the original inhabitants of the land, who came here tens of thousands of years before the Neolithic Revolution and the beginning of urban life in the northern hemisphere, and whose way of life seems to have remained remarkably stable, all but untouched by the history of the rest of humanity, until the beginning of British settlement at the end of the eighteenth century. The Aborigines are constantly present to varying degrees in the art and the consciousness of European Australians throughout the history of modern Australia, and so appear in many of the chapters of this book."--

Book Synopsis

Dieses Buch ist eine Einführung in die Kunst Australiens seit Ankunft der ersten Siedler mit der First Fleet im Jahr 1788. Die Beiträge stammen von renommierten Kunsthistorikern und jungen Wissenschaftlern, die ihr jeweiliges Fachgebiet fesselnd, verständlich und unvoreingenommen darstellen. Die überwiegende Zahl der Kapitel beschäftigt sich mit prägenden Epochen, die mehr oder weniger chronologisch beschrieben werden. Auf bestimmte Regionen und besondere Kunstformen, die andernfalls im weiter gefassten historischen Kontext unberücksichtigt bleiben würden, wird in eigenen Kapiteln eingegangen.

From the Back Cover

A Companion to Australian Art is a thorough introduction to the art produced in Australia from the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 to the early 21st century. Beginning with the colonial art made by Australia's first European settlers, this volume presents a collection of clear and accessible essays by established art historians and emerging scholars alike. Engaging, clearly-written chapters provide fresh insights into the principal Australian art movements, considered from a variety of chronological, regional and thematic perspectives.

The text seeks to provide a balanced account of historical events to help readers discover the art of Australia on their own terms and draw their own conclusions. The book begins by surveying the historiography of Australian art and exploring the history of art museums in Australia. The following chapters discuss art forms such as photography, sculpture, portraiture and landscape painting, examining the practice of art in the separate colonies before Federation, and in the Commonwealth from the early 20th century to the present day. This authoritative volume covers the last 250 years of art in Australia, including the Early Colonial, High Colonial and Federation periods as well as the successive Modernist styles of the 20th century, and considers how traditional Aboriginal art has adapted and changed over the last fifty years.

The Companion to Australian Art is a valuable resource for both undergraduate and graduate students of the history of Australian artforms from colonization to postmodernism, and for general readers with an interest in the nation's colonial art history.

About the Author

Christopher Allen is Senior Master in Academic Extension at Sydney Grammar School, and National Art Critic for The Australian. He is a Trustee of the State Library of New South Wales and is the author of several books on the history of Australian art and French art in the 17th century, as well as a major postdoctoral work on early modern art theory. Previously, Allen was lecturer in Art History and Theory at the National Art School in Sydney and was an art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review.