National Geographic reports that: "Aboriginals had the (Australian) continent to themselves for 50,000 years. Today they make up less than three percent of the population and their traditional lifestyle is disappearing. Almost. In the homelands the ancient ways live on".
There are around 500 different Australian Aboriginal groups, each with its own language and territory and typically made up of a large number of separate clans. They themselves trace their creation back to the Dreamtime, when the earth was first formed. Dreaming creatures, Aboriginals believe, are connected to places, tracks, roads, paths and sites where their spirits stayed.
Dreamtime is the oldest form of a sense of place and Australia's first people believe that we each belong to an area. If the area is destroyed, the people are destroyed.
"Aboriginals’ land was invaded from the end of the 18th century onwards, with catastrophic consequences for them," says Survival International.org. "Today more than half of all Aboriginals live in towns, often on the outskirts in terrible conditions. Many others work as labourers on cattle ranches that have taken over their land.
Many, particularly in the northern half of the continent, have managed to cling on to their land and still hunt and gather ‘bush tucker’".
According to Australian Aboriginal Art Gallery, Artlandish: "Australian Aboriginal art has seen an unprecedented increase in popularity over recent years and this is not restricted to its native country. Internationally recognized as a unique form of art, it is welcomed overseas and respected and admired by art critics everywhere".
Hailed as arguably the last great art movement, while Australian Aboriginal Art is inspired by ancient and mysterious culture and tradition, it is most often strikingly modern in design and use of color.
Santa Rosa's Chroma Gallery at 312 South A Street, offers California collectors a rare opportunity for purchasing paintings by Australian Aboriginal artists this Spring.
Numerous works from a private Australian collection (some of which are pictured in this post) will be included in the exhibit, with each fully documented painting available for sale with provenance of its authenticity and information about the artist.
Dreamings — Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibit March 11–April 4, 2015
Opening reception Saturday, March 14 noon to 4pm
The tradition and symbology of Australian paintings reaches back more than 40,000 years, when these patterns were first used for ritualistic body painting and sand mosaics. In the early 1970's, Aboriginal artists began using modern art materials and combining their traditional imagery of complex geometric patterns with lush acrylic colors.
Though seemingly abstract, the multilayered paintings reflect the Aboriginal experience of reading the veiled secrets of the desert environment, its plants, animals and pathways. According to Aboriginal mythology, the desert is marked by the movements of legendary ancestors – the wanderings known as Dreamings.
While Western art collectors may value the works according to how well they were executed, Aboriginal people tend to rank them by the importance of the Dreaming in them, thus infusing these pieces with a spiritual sense of mystery, danger and awe.
Individual pieces, stories and songlines in their own right, in this collection range from $300 upwards.
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