Warlugulong Sold
I wouldn't want this as a rug, let alone as a picture to hang on my wall, but the Australian National Gallery in Canberra recently lashed out £970,000 (US$2m) for Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri's Warlugulong. This "masterpiece" depicts the Aboriginal view of Creation and is "one of the most profound examples of indigenous art ever produced," reads the BBC blurb. Oh yeah? I've seen better Aboriginal sand paintings. Trouble is, they tend to vanish as soon as the first roo jumps in.
Update: yes, I know this is the wrong picture.
posted by Unknown @ 25.7.07
7 comments
7 Comments:
Constructive criticism is great,obvious ignorance is a curse and having a picture of the wrong painting to illustrate that ignorance proves the point.
You're projecting again.
The BBC picture was rubbish, so I searched the Intenet for a better graphic of this painting, downloaded two and used this one (a large and detailed graphic, which I reduced in size). It came from a reliable educational website that had set this picture as work for art students!
If we can have an argument like this, it just goes to prove how bad the original work is: every photographer produces a different version of it.
Complain to the BBC.
Hi again, Anon
I just opened ArtDaily, which belatedly carries the news of old Possum's sale, and I owe you an apology. Blog and info. coming up.
Yeah, I can't say he's one of my favorite aboriginal artists, but I think it's great that they're reaching these prices. As much as I don't want to admit it, contemporary Australian Aboriginal art is probably the best thing Australia has given to the art world (at a global level).
If there wasnt so many frauds, imitators and fakes around, I think they would be fetching much higher sums.
From what I've seen, the best Aussie art seems to be spray-painted on cars!
I'm all for native arts and crafts being recognized - the quality of Amerindian traditional beadwork is very high -, but I'd like to see the original artists making the money, not some bank that probably paid peanuts for old Possum's painting. Also, I don't see how "modern" European painting techniques can properly convey traditional art. I'd rather see a good photo of an Aboriginal sand painting - better still a short movie showing it being created - than a cross-cultural bastard of traditional ideas in an alien medium.
Have you come across the art of Karen Noles? She's a US artist who paints Amerindian girls in their traditional beadwork-decorated dresses.
obviously you are all retarded as you have the wrong picture. This is not Clifford's painting that sold for 2.4 mil. Pommy idiots
We've already been through all that. Can't you read?
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