Title: Songlines and dreamings : contemporary Australian Aboriginal painting : the first quarter-century of Papunya Tula /
Authors: Corbally Stourton, Patrick.; Corbally Stourton, Nigel.
Publisher: Lund Humphries,
Year: 1996
Subjects: Papunya Tula Artists' Company.; Painting, Aboriginal Australian.; Painting, Modern Australia.
Abstract: The art of the Australian Aborigines is widely recognised as being the oldest art form in the world, preceding that of the Americas and Europe by many centuries. For thousands of years, however, the only art forms practised by the Aborigines were rock painting and carving, bark painting, sand painting and body painting using natural ochres, wild desert cotton, charcoal and birds' down, often carried out as part of ceremonial activities. It was not until 1971 that the Aborigines of the Papunya Tula settlement in the deserts of the Northern Territory were introduced to methods of painting on canvas and board using modern materials. This book commemorates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Papunya Tula painting movement - the birthplace of contemporary Aboriginal painting.
Contents: Foreword / Giles Auty -- 1. The Aboriginal People: The Original Inhabitants of Australia -- 2. Aboriginal Art before 1971 -- 3. The Mythology of Dreamings -- 4. The Interpretation of Desert Paintings -- 5. Papunya Tula: The Start of the Movement -- 6. Papunya Tula: The First Quarter-century -- 7. The Artists and Their Paintings: Colour Plates 1-190 -- 8. The Next Twenty-five Years.