As the 10th anniversary of indigenous art auctions looms, there's no doubt that aboriginal art is now the international face of Australian art
By Katrina Strickland
Australian Financial Review Magazine
30th June 2006
The $1.36 million worth of Aboriginal art sold at auction a decade ago, according to the Australian Art Sales Digest, had grown to $6.4 million by the turn of the millennium, mostly sold through Sotheby's, while in the past five years the entry of a raft of auction houses, primarily Lawson-Menzies and Christie's, has seen sales double to $13.2 million.
In 2003, the Brisbane-based artist Richard Bell won the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award with a painting that declared: "Aboriginal art, it's a white thing." His latest work, which will go on show at Victoria's TarraWarra Museum in August, features an equally pithy slogan: "Australian art, it's an Aboriginal thing."
The two paintings neatly encapsulate the art movement of our time and place; a movement that began 35 years ago in a small town in the Great Sandy Desert, and which has grown spectacularly -in output, geographical reach, diversity of style and value -over the past decade. As the 10th anniversary of stand-alone Aboriginal art auctions in Australia looms, it is clear how much the sector has grown. The $1.36 million worth of Aboriginal art sold at auction a decade ago, according to the Australian Art Sales Digest, had grown to $6.4 million by the turn of the millennium, mostly sold through Sotheby's, while in the past five years the entry of a raft of auction houses, primarily Lawson-Menzies and Christie's, has seen sales double to $13.2 million. And despite the departure of Christie's this year, secondary sales are projected to top $15 million by the end of 2006.
That's just secondary sales. There isn't an accurate figure for indigenous art sales - primarily, as Bell's slogan attests, to white Westerners - but most estimates hover above $200 million, if everything from tourist trinkets to high-end art is included.
The growth has been fuelled by an explosion in the number of indigenous artists and galleries. In 1971, when young school teacher Geoffrey Bardon arrived at Papunya in Central Australia and got the local men painting again, there was no such thing as an indigenous art centre.
By the year 2000 there were 24 community art centres, and today there are more than 70, dotted everywhere from Lockhart River and Aurukun in Cape York to Haasts Bluff and Papunya in Central Australia, and across to West Australian towns such as Warmun, Kununurra and Balgo. John Oster, the executive officer of Desart, an association of Aboriginal art and craft centres of Central Australia, estimates that around 6,000 indigenous artists are now at work across the country.
As a result, talking about indigenous art as if it was one homogenous movement is like talking about Asia as if it was one culture. The work of young contemporary Cape York artists such as Rosella Namok and Samantha Hobson is a world away from the paintings of late central desert men such as Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula and Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, or the photographic work of urban artists such as Brook Andrew and Tracey Moffatt.
It is the diversity of contemporary indigenous art, and its wider influence, to which Bell's latest slogan attests. It came to him after a stroll through the 2004 Melbourne Art Fair. "One of my mates said 'you think Aboriginal art is a white thing, but have a look around here, it seems to me that Australian art is an Aboriginal thing'," Bell recalls, adding: "So much of the work by white artists appropriated Aboriginal imagery."
At the same time, indigenous art has become the face of Australian visual arts abroad. Andrew and Moffatt are just two of the artists who enjoy international reputations. Seven of the top 10 indigenous artworks sold at auction over the past decade went overseas and Sotheby's head of indigenous art, Tim Klingender, estimates that 40 to 50 per cent by value go offshore in each sale. A small but dedicated bunch of Europeans and North Americans regularly outbid local institutions and collectors.
And while international institutions have been slower to begin collecting, the unveiling of the $370 million Musee du quai Branly - with a $1.4 million Aboriginal art commission as a centrepiece - in Paris in late June marked a watershed. Half a dozen dealers held exhibitions to capitalise on the opening, including Sotheby's, as part of its London/New York whistlestop of highlights from a 131-lot, $5 million collection to be auctioned in Melbourne on July 31 to celebrate its 10th anniversary of indigenous sales.
Klingender of Sotheby's expects to sell $8 million over the next year, with Lawson-Menzies expecting to realise an ambitious $7.2 million. As for the next decade, it's a good bet that the great art will continue going up in price, and that the schlock, of which there has been and will continue to be plenty, will become relatively worthless.
1:
Price: $778,750
Year: 2001
House: Sotheby's, Melbourne
Location: NGA
Artist: Thomas, Rover (Joolama)
Title: All That Big Rain Coming from Top Side, 1991
Details: Natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on canvas, 180 x 120 cm
2:
Price: $486,500
Year: 2000
House: Sotheby's, Melbourne
Location: Private collection, New York
Artist: Tjupurrula, Johnny Warangkula
Title: Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa, 1972
Details: Synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board, 75 x 80 cm
3:
Price: $474,500
Year: 2003
House: Sotheby's, Sydney
Location: Private Collection, International
Artist: Thomas, Rover (Joolama)
Title: Lake Gregory (Buragu) in the Wet Season, 1988 Details: Natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on canvas, 121 x 162 cm
4:
Price: $463,000
Year: 2003
House: Sotheby's, Sydney
Location:: Private Collection, International
Artist: Kngwarreye, Emily Kame
Title: Spring Celebration, 1991 (detail)
Details: Synthetic polymer paint on linen,
30 x 230 cm
5:
Price: $411,750
Year: 2005
House: Sotheby's, Melbourne
Location: Private Collection, France
Artist: Tjapaltjarri, Clifford Possum Anmatjera
Title: Man's Love Story Details: Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, signed and dated on the reverse, 184 x 457 cm
6:
Price: $411,750
Year: 2005
House: Sotheby's, Melbourne
Location: Private Collection, New York
Artist: Tjapaltjarri, Clifford Possum Anmatjera
Title: Emu Corroboree Man, 1972
Details: Synthetic polymer paint on composition board, 46 x 61.5 cm
7:
Price: $396,000
Year: 2006
House: Deutscher-Menzies, Sydney
Location: Private Collection, Sydney
Artist: Onus, Lin
Title: Water Lillies and Evening Reflections, Dingo Springs
Details: Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 182.5 x 244 cm
8:
Price: $394,000
Year: 2002
House: Sotheby's, Melbourne
Location: Private Collection, Sydney
Artist: Thomas, Rover (Joolama)
Title: Wurlangawarrin - Salt Pan, 1986
Details: Natural earth pigments and natural binder (bush gums) on canvas.
90 x 180 cm
9:
Price: $376,750
Year: 2003
House: Sotheby's, Sydney
Location: Private Collection, UK
Artist: Thomas, Rover (Joolama)
Title: Yillimbiddi Country, 1988
Details: Natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas, 100 x 140 cm
10:
Price: $342,250
Year: 2003
House: Sotheby's, Sydney
Location: Private Collection, International
Artist: Tjupurrula, Johnny Warangkula
Title: Spearing of Matingpilangu, 1974
Details: Synthetic polymer paint on linen, 173 x 203 cm