What Is Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal art is one of the oldest living culture in the history of the world. Archaeologists have discovered evidence to show that the culture started more than 20,000 years ago. The art comes in various categories such as rock paintings, rock engravings, dot painting, bark painting, aerial landscape art, carvings and sculpture as well as weaving and string-art. It is a story-telling art where stories of cultural importance are explained using symbols. The art also transmit knowledge on land management and survival matters. Different symbols convey certain meanings that can be understood across different ethnic and culturally diverse communities. Here are some of the good aboriginal art for sale on the internet in Australia.

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The artists require authority to paint particular cultural stories and this authority is inherited from the custodians of this knowledge. The ownership of certain stories is held within certain skin groups who transmit the ownership from one generation to the next. Creation law is at the heart of this art .The law is set out in the dreaming. The dreaming identifies the traditional Aborigines and how they are connected to their land. The style and character of the Aboriginal art is regional. Different linguistic groups approach the art in unique ways. The contemporary art of the Aborigines can be easily identified with the community which created it.

Below are the aboriginal symbols with meanings.

aboriginal art symbols

Aborigine artists originally relied on local materials for coloring. They used iron clay or ocher to produce white, yellow and red. They relied on charcoal to get the black color. These four colors were the basis of the paintings made during the modern desert art that started in 1971.The manner in which the colors are chosen continued to identify the styles used by the different communities. For instance, the Western Desert people used strong primary colors while the Papunya Tula preferred the soft earth colors. One unique feature about the Aboriginal art is the aerial views. These allow the imagination of the artists to hover across the country observing metaphysical markings as well as the naturalistic features of the landscapes. The aerial views therefore enable the artists to draw dream tracks laid down by the ancestors during the creation time.

The Aboriginal art is a source of income to many of the remote communities. It has also helped to strengthen the cultural values of the society by reinforcing the traditional values. The art has found its way to be represented both in ethnographic and contemporary art collections. Symbolic abstraction used by the artists has enabled the art to find its way into the modern art world.Indigenous art movements were the backbone to the emergency and development of the Aborigine art to where it is today. Contrary to the western artists who go for formal training on painting, the Aborigines develop their work in art centers and community groups.

The development of the art has not been smooth all the way. There has been a variety of issues undermining its development. With the growth of the private market for the art, the artists were sometimes frustrated when buyers failed to pay prices that reflected the value of their work. Some of the buyers did not take keen interest in understanding the story behind the painting. Exploitation was also a major concern for the art. Some people came with offers to give the artists a car for every quality 10-15 paintings. However, when the car arrived, the artists were disappointed to discover that the car had flat tires, no fuel, no jack nor spares. Famous artists were pursued while sick artists were exploited. The Aborigine art has however remained one of the most significant arts in the world.

The Historical and Innovative Aboriginal Dot Art in Australia

The world today has closely associated the Aboriginal art and especially the dot art with Australian traditional mysteries. Actually, you can find the art in most galleries and private collections. This art is among the oldest form of art in the world with the oldest one dating from approximately 30,000 years ago. Even though the Australia Aboriginal art has become popular, only a few people may be aware of the mysteries and meanings linked to some of the dots and symbols on each of the art works. The fact that there might be some meaning behind the art is evident with experts who have linked beliefs of Aboriginal people to some of the drawings.

There are many types of styles with regard to Aboriginal art, with both time depth and regional differences. Each region for instance, has varying styles as one goes back in terms of years. You can confirm this from the example of studies by Kakadu from the North and Kimberly from the West. The rock arts showed several evolving styles that dated to over 10,000 years ago. Generally, the paintings and carves were divided into two wide categories: the figurative and the non-figurative. However, the art itself is more complex than just the paintings and carves. It also includes, free standing carvings, stencils, thread-cross strings and objects such as raised designs on sand, charcoal drawings, and the application of feathers among others.

The dot art itself emerged in the 1970’s after the Papunya art movement in Western Australia. Geoffrey Bardon, an art teacher, supported the movement and even instigated the placing of a wall mural. The art movement, supported Aboriginal artists to change their art signs and symbols, and dreaming designs on the ground to permanent art on canvas material. The designs had dancing circles as a representation of the sacred mysteries and spiritual events. They showed maps drawn in form of lines, dashes, spirals and circles. This new drawing style led to an uprising in public demand for the protection of the meaning and secrets of those Australia Aboriginal dot art.

The political sector intervened with protection laws which led to the use of dots by artists as a way of hiding the real meanings behind each art. Even with the high public pressure on the protection of secrecy, Papunya Tula artists came up with a way to originally mirror the traditions and spiritual rituals. The rituals involved the clearing and smoothening of soil as a canvas. This was done for the drawing of sacred designs that replicated movements of the ancient beings upon earth. Dancing circles and dots were then added to the designs. After that, the imprinted earth drawing was smoothened and painted bodies rubbed away to ensure complete masking of the secrets.

It does not matter whether the Australia Aboriginal dot art is a concealer, sacred or even just symbols of rain, feathers, the fact still remains that the dot art is complex and at the same time very innovative. When you look at the art by Warrangula Tjupurrula, you can see the overlaying dots techniques and superimposed patterns that cause shapes and objects to merge in and out of each other. There is an incorporation of a balance between modern and traditional art knowledge. The dot style, regardless of its original meaning is rhythmic and gives a sense of movement. All these show some kind of inspiration which is similar to the practiced rituals.