Overview

For thousands of years, Australian Aborigines have been making art. A manifestation of the creative forces of Dreamtime, art is also a fundamental means of expressing individual and group identity. Howard Morphy surveys the great variety in Aboriginal art, showing the inter-relationships between such diverse art forms as body painting, dance, the decoration of weapons and utensils, and painting on bark and canvas.

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9780714837529

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Reviews

This is a wonderful book by the pre-eminent scholar of Aboriginal art. For anyone who wants to know about Aboriginal art and the people who make it, this is the most important, indeed brilliant, book in 20 years. -Fred Myers, Department of Anthropology, New York University Howard Morphy's Aboriginal Art is far and away the best survey of this subject to have appeared to date. -Luke Taylor, Senior Curator, National Museum of Australia On the Art & Ideas series Art & Ideas has broken new ground in making accessible authoritative views on periods, movements and concepts in art. As a series it represents a real advance in publishing. -Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate London The format is wonderful and offers what had long been missing in academic studies: usable manuals for specific themes or periods... I am definitely not alone in welcoming Art & Ideas as a precious set of teaching tools. -Joachim Pissarro, Yale University Phaidon's series may prove to be the pick of the crop. It boasts expert but undogmatic texts and a wealth of illustrations. -The Sunday Telegraph

'This is a wonderful book by the pre-eminent scholar of Aboriginal art. For anyone who wants to know about Aboriginal art and the people who make it, this is the most important, indeed brilliant, book in 20 years.' (Fred Myers, Department of Anthropology, New York University) 'Howard Morphy's Aboriginal Art is far and away the best survey of this subject to have appeared to date.' (Luke Taylor, Senior Curator, National Museum of Australia) 'Art & Ideas has broken new ground in making accessible authoritative views on periods, movements and concepts in art. As a series it represents a real advance in publishing.' (Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate London) 'The format is wonderful and offers what had long been missing in academic studies: usable manuals for specific themes or periods...I am definitely not alone in welcoming Art & Ideas as a precious set of teaching tools.' (Joachim Pissarro, Yale University)

This is a wonderful book by the pre-eminent scholar of Aboriginal art. For anyone who wants to know about Aboriginal art and the people who make it, this is the most important, indeed brilliant, book in 20 years. -Fred Myers, Department of Anthropology, New York University Howard Morphy's Aboriginal Art is far and away the best survey of this subject to have appeared to date. -Luke Taylor, Senior Curator, National Museum of Australia On the Art & Ideas series Art & Ideas has broken new ground in making accessible authoritative views on periods, movements and concepts in art. As a series it represents a real advance in publishing. -Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate London The format is wonderful and offers what had long been missing in academic studies: usable manuals for specific themes or periods... I am definitely not alone in welcoming Art & Ideas as a precious set of teaching tools. -Joachim Pissarro, Yale University Phaidon's series may prove to be the pick of the crop. It boasts expert but undogmatic texts and a wealth of illustrations. -The Sunday Telegraph

Aboriginal art has survived the colonial period to become a major feature of contemporary Australian culture. In this book, one of the world's foremost experts on the subject surveys the great variety in Aboriginal art, from ancient rock paintings to powerful modern works in acrylic on canvas. The patterns and symbols of Aboriginal art, although they may appear to be abstract, are laden with meaning, and the book explains the social contexts in which art was made and its religious significance-as a manifestation of the creative forces of Dreamtime and as a means of expressing individual and group identity. It is the first book to use a contextual approach to show the interrelationships between such diverse art forms as body painting, dance, the decoration of weapons and utensils, and painting on bark, board and canvas. It is illustrated with many outstanding examples, many published here for the first time, and provides a splendid overview that will be welcomed by the growing international audience for Aboriginal art. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Howard Morphy is Director of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research at the Australian National University, Canberra.

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