Australian Art History

The Art of Australia refers to both Australian Indiginious art, Australian Colonial art, Modernist and Contemporary art. Australia has produced famous artists from both Western traditions and

Indigenous Australian traditions.

Tom Roberts

A paddock at Box Hill where Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin pitched camp late in 1885 to paint outdoors. The selected location was approximately one kilometre from the Box Hill railway station and provided an area of natural bush to paint.

In this work, Frederick McCubbin is seated by the tent, whilst a friend is bending over showing McCubbin the chops he has just grilled over the fire.

THE ARTISTS' CAMP, 1886

oil on canvas45.7 x 60.8 cm

Felton Bequest 1943National Gallery of

Victoria, Melbourne

FREDERICK McCUBBIN

THE PIONEER, 1904 oil on canvas (triptych) 223.5 x 86 cm; 224.7 x 122.5 cm; 223.5 x 85.7 cm

Collection: National Gallery of Victoria. Felton Bequest 1906

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1933— 2002) was an Australian painter considered to be one of the most collected and well-known Australian Indigenous artists. His paintings are held in many galleries and collections around Australia and overseas.

He was the most famous of the Indigenous artists who lived around Papunya, in the Northern Territory's Western Desert area, when the acrylic painting style (known popularly as "dot art") was initiated.

Geoffrey Bardon went to Papunya in the early 1970s and encouraged the Aboriginal people to put their dreaming stories on canvas, stories which had previously been depicted on the ground.

Angry PenguinsThe beginning of modernism in Australia

• The Angry Penguin painters are considered to be the major figures of a modernist movement in Australian art, based in Melbourne.

• The Angry Penguins included; Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, Max Harris, John Perceval, Albert Tucker and Joy Hester.

• Sidney Nolan (1917–1992) begins a series of paintings illustrating the life of nineteenth-century folk hero Ned Kelly, blending elements of Australian biography, history, landscape, and myth.

• Their aim was to modernise Australian creative arts and challenge traditions they saw as restrictive in Australia in the 1940s.

Sidney Nolan (1917-1992), Kelly

and horse, 1946, enamel on

composition board

Sidney NolanBurke and wills expedition

Australian born, Sidney Nolan taught himself to paint and took it up professionally in 1938.

His early abstracts were soon replaced by his famous naive paintings that depicted the adventures of Ned Kelly and explorers Burke and Wills.

In 1950, Nolan traveled and studied throughout Europe, including Italy, Greece, and North Africa and then settled in London. Here, he began painting in a more mature, slightly figurative, abstract style.

Nolan also worked as a set designer, book illustrator and poet. He became Sir Sidney Nolan in 1981. Burke and Wills expedition, 'Gray sick’ 1949

Painting, synthetic polymer paint and oil-based red ochre on hardboard

John Glover

The Blue Mountain Parrot from Sydney 1832

Oil on canvas 56.3 x 46.4 cm

Rex Nan Kivell Collection. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia

and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Left, Ulswater, Cumberland 1840oil on canvas74.6cm x 113cmAccession no. 830-5Gift of Miss B. Hunter, 1961

Tom Robertsborn Great Britain 1856 arrived Australia 1869

AboveShearing the rams 1888–90

oil on canvas on composition board,

122.4 x 183.3 cmFelton Bequest, 1932, National

Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

RightHoliday Sketch at Coogee 1888

Charles Condor 1868 - 1909

Above, Coogee Bay 1888oil on cardboard26.8cm x 40.7cm

Right, Carnival (1890s)oil on cardboard on plywood22.2cm x 27cm height x width

Accession no. 1393-4Bequest of Mrs Mary Helen Keep, 1944

ALBERT NAMATJIRAAustralia 1902 - 1959

From the Aranda language group

The Finke River Gorge at entrance to Glen Helen c.1945-53

Watercolour and gouache over pencilon thick wove paper

53.4 x 36.8cmGift of Lady Trout 1981

Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Above, Glen Helen Landscape

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

1910-1996or Emily Kam Ngwarray was an

Australian Indigenious artist from the Utopia community in the Northern

Territory.

Above, Earth's Creation, 1995

Above, Ntange Dreaming 1989

Left"Big Yam Dreaming" 1995

Arthur Streeton1867 - 1943

THE CLOUD, 1936, Also known as ‘STORM OVER MACEDON’

Below, EVENING WITH BATHERS 1888

Above, Near Heidelberg 1890oil on canvas

53.4cm x 43.1cmFelton Bequest, 1943

JANE SUTHERLANDBorn United States 1853

Arrived Australia 1864, Died 1928 Right

Portrait Of Margaret Sutherland As a young girl c. 1905

pastel, 30 x 18.5 cmPrivate Collection

Above, Field naturalists (c.1896)

Albert Tucker1914–1999

above, Explorer 1967Oil on composition board

60 x 44.5cm

below - Intruder and Parrots

Joy HESTER 1920–60

aboveGirl holding flowers

1956 Melbournebrush and ink, watercolour, pastel

35.8 x 27.1 cmRight

Girl and Teacup

Ink and wash on paper

25 x 20cm

John Perceval 1923–2000

RightNegroes at night 1944Painted in Melbourne

oil on canvas mounted on composition board

LeftTug boat in a boat1956 Williamstown, Melbourneenamel paint and tempera on composition board71.0 x 119.4 cm

Margaret Preston1875–1963

RightWest Australian banksia, 1929

relief woodcut, printed in black ink, from one block; hand-coloured

Impression: 10th proof44.2 h x 38.0 w cm

Above, Wheel flower

Russell Drysdale1912–1981

LeftSofala (1947) Vaucluse, Sydneyoil on canvas on composition board

RightThe rabbiter and his family

1938

Lloyd Rees

LeftA south coast road (1951)by painted at Werri beach

RightGerrigong Landscape 1968

oil on canvas on board

John BrackRight

The Old Time, which sold for a record

auction price for an Australian painting

Above, Collins St., 5p.m. 1955oil on canvas

114.8cm x 162.8cm

Arthur Boyd1920 - 1999

is recognised as a master painter, potter and graphic artist,

nationally and internationally

LeftBurning off(1957) Victoriaoil on composition board89.2 x 119.8 cm

RightShearers playing for a bride (1957)

oil and tempera on canvas150.1cm x 175.7cm height x width

Gift of Tristan Buesst, 1958

Sidney Nolan1917 - 1992

Nolan was fixated with Australia's icons, especially the legendary bushranger, Ned Kelly.

LeftThe Trial, 1947enamel on composition board; 90.7 x 121.2cm, National Gallery of Australia.

RightDeath of Sergeant Kennedy

at Stringybark Creek 1971

Charles Blackman

born Australia 1928

Above, Boat (1956)enamel paint on paper on

composition board96.2cm x 130.6cm

RightFeet beneath the table 1956

tempera and oil on composition board106.5 x 121.8 cm

Fred WILLIAMS 1927-1982

RightUpwey Landscape 1965

LeftRed Landscape, 1981Oil on canvas

Brett Whiteley1939 – 1992

He was seen as one of the leading lights of the avant-garde art movement.

RightBird and Wave

LeftThe Olgas For Ernest Giles

Jeffrey Smart born 1921

RightAutobahn in the Black Forest 2,

(1979)

Above, Cahill Expressway

Kevin Charles

"Pro" Hart MBE1928 –2006

below, GO11 Sunday PapersAbove, Dragonfly

Above, Waterhole 1983

Peter BoothAustralian, born England, 1940

RightDesert, 1985

Oil on canvas; 121.9 x 243.8 cm

Left,“Human / Nature" Painting 1977

John Olsenborn in Newcastle

1928

The chapel 1966 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas on hardboard

Ken DoneBorn 1940

Postcard from God, 1976, oil on canvas, 110 x 104 cms

Opera house and Bridge

Deborah HalpernBorn, 1957 Melbourne

Angel, 1988ceramic, steel, concrete

924.5 × 992.5 × 351.5 cm

Detail

Detail

Howard Arkley1951–1999

Below, Family home: Suburban exterior 1993Synthetic polymer paint on canvas,

203.0 x 257.0 cmMonash University Museum of Art,

Melbourne, Purchased, 1994

Above, Tattooed head 1988

Jon CattapanBorn 1956

LeftMelbourne panels 1, 2 & 32003Oil on linen

RightGroup Discusses

2002oil on linen

Patricia Piccinini, The Young Family (detail), 2002-2003, silicone, acrylic, human hair, leather

Patricia PiccininiThe Young Family 2002-2003 Silicone, Acrylic, Human Hair, Leather

Del Kathryn Barton (born 1972)

2008 Archibald Prize winner... You are what is most beautiful about me A self portrait with Kell and Arella (Del’s children)

The Last Night of my Life with Cat

2005Etching

75 x 53 cm

Fiona Margaret HallBorn 16 November 1953

Understory (detail) (1999-2004) Glass beads, silver wire, rubber, boar's teeth

Leaf Litter: Dioscored esculenta – air potato

2000-03gouache on international

currency

David Bromley (born 1960 in Sheffield, England)

is an Australian artist

Title: McLean & friendsMedium: acrylic on canvas

Dimensions: 175 x 260cmhttp://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2004/27918/

Title: Louise OlsenMedium

synthetic polymer paint on linen with metallic leaf

Dimensions: 213 x 152cm

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2008/28612/

Joshua Yeldham1970 Born Sydney, Australia

Prayer for Protection carved board with oil, shellac, resin and cane

152 x 120cm

Morning Bay – Lovers Rock carved board with oil and cane

152 x 240 cm

Reg MombassaChristopher "Chris" O'Doherty, also known by the pseudonym Reg Mombassa

Christopher "Chris" O'Doherty, also known by the pseudonym Reg

Mombassa, is an Australian New Zealand-born artist and musician. He is a founding member of the band Mental As Anything and

member of Dog Trumpet.

Surreal ScapeOil and glitter on constructed timber

152 x 98 x 20 cm

Mirka Mora1928 (age 89), Born in France

Mirka Madeline Mora is a prominent French-born Australian visual artist who has contributed

significantly to the development of contemporary art in Australia.

In the Garden, 1996Oil on canvas

61 x 76 cm