Some Aboriginal Art facts.Aboriginal art is one of the oldest surviving art forms still practiced today. As a style it has been documented to be many thousands of years old.
It is also the newest form of cultural art work to be commercialized with its commercialization starting about 1970 from Papunya, Northern Territory and now carried out through art centers in many Aboriginal communities throughout Australia.
The oldest of the paintings likely being several thousand years old in caves and have been painted with Ochre.
These paintings mostly in caves, are not now showing their original paint as they have been constantly redone by caretakers of the cultural story, the initiated men. Many of these used a process called stenciling.
These painting show many layers of paint carefully applied decade on decade.The traditional style of the artwork is very regional.With Aboriginal dot painting coming from the desert regions.Minimalist types of paintings are coming from mid to North Western Australia.
I have a wonderful painting done by a husband and wife, he is from Arnhem Land known for rarrk or crosshatching and she from the desert and is a dot painter.
The combined effort of the two artists styles in the same painting is quite striking.
Very vibrant colors in what looks to be a finger painting come from the desert edge in Western Australia.
Rarrk or cross hatching on bark is from the Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory.
Some Aboriginal Artists paint in nontraditional styles and produce contemporary landscapes as well as other contemporary works.Traditional Aboriginal paintings always have a story because the Aboriginal people do not have a written language and the only way they can tell their cultural story is through painting and songs.
I hope that you found the Aboriginal art facts interesting.
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