Aboriginal artists of the nineteenth century

The curator of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, examines a considerable body of drawings produced by Aboriginal artists between 1803 and 1903. Most of the works reproduced in this volume are retained in museums, libraries or private hands and have rarely been displayed. Often regarded as bastard or inauthentic art because of their stylistic borrowings and fluctuations, they enjoy a unique status as products of the interaction between Aboriginal society and the British colonizers. The largest group of drawings comes from the hands of three artists, Tommy McCrae (c1823 - 1901), William Barak (c1824 - 1903) and Ulladulla Mickey (c1820 - 1891), who produced their drawings in the 1880s and 1890s. These drawings possess many of the aesthetic qualities which characterize contemporary Aboriginal art. They display intense vitality and an acute understanding of flora and fauna.