- Venue
- Royal Academy of Arts
- Location
Largely unfamiliar to the UK, these Australian artists reveal an entire history of art, almost parallel to more usual art narratives.
The RA has balanced showing aboriginal works, both ancient and contemporary, alongside paintings and other media, so that influences are clear. The aesthetic of aboriginal dream paintings weave in and through the incoming artists’ work.
The landscape of Australia is a world of possibilities. To a western eye it is exotic, dramatic, large and endless. Nature comes with that sense of the Sublime built in, with epic vistas and stunningly atmospheric lights. With such awesome views for surroundings, Australian artists have looked to the landscape for meaning, and the landscape still remains the dominant theme and subject of the contemporary artists in this show. It’s fascinating how place influences the psychological locus of artists, and Australian artists seems to project their meaning and psychology onto the land, making them extrospective, if there is such a word.
It’s very moving to see the work of settlers and their paintings of small towns and harbours, the clusters of civilisation. It’s also a reminder that art has long been an international movement, that nowhere out of the way is really provincial and cut off, and that people are drawn to make art no matter where they are.
200 years, 200 works from 146 artists, Australia is impressive and awesome, and as essential as looking at art itself. The exhibition is naturally one slice from many possibilities, and an equal size of exhibition would be needed to represent contemporary Australian art.
There are many works to spend considerable time with, allowing them to seep in. Some paintings after all probably could not have been painted anywhere else.
