
International Art | Sculpture
Satyr with wineskin cast 19th century
after UNKNOWN ROMAN
International Art | Sculpture
Satyr with wineskin cast 19th century
after UNKNOWN ROMAN
International Art | Painting
The prodigal son c.1780-1840
UNKNOWN
International Art | Sculpture
Spinario cast late 19th century
after School of PASITELES
Asian Art | Print
Courtesans (reprint) unknown
after EISEN
Asian Art | Sculpture
Flying horse of Kansu cast 1973
after EASTERN HAN ARTIST
International Art | Sculpture
Bust of Niccolo da Uzzano unknown
after DONATELLO
International Art | Sculpture
Borghese warrior 19th century
after AGASIUS THE EPHESIAN
Pacific Art | Fibre
Jipai (mask) 2011
AFEX, Ben
International Art | Glass
Decanter c.1875-1900
AESTHETIC STYLE
International Art | Glass
Vase c.1880-1900
AESTHETIC STYLE
International Art | Glass
Vase c.1880-1900
AESTHETIC STYLE
Contemporary Australian Art | Installation
Blackboards with pendulums 1992
KENNEDY, Peter
International Art | Drawing
Design
ADAM, Sicander
International Art | Metalwork
Tea urn c.1770-1800
ADAM STYLE
International Art | Ceramic
Long necked vase c.1900-50
ACOMO PUEBLO
Pacific Art | Photograph
'Te Waiherehere', Koroniti, Wanganui River, 29 May 1986 1986, printed 1997
ABERHART, Laurence
Pacific Art | Photograph
Nature morte (silence), Savage Club, Wanganui, 20 February 1986 1986, printed 1999
ABERHART, Laurence
Pacific Art | Photograph
Angel over Whangape Harbour, Northland, 6 May 1982 1982, printed 1991
ABERHART, Laurence
Australian Art | Drawing
A memory of Gumeracha (study of flies) 1908
HEYSEN, Hans
Pacific Art | Print
The boxer 2009
ABEL, Patrik
A number of important engagements occurred between Aboriginal artists and the wider art world prior to the emergence of desert or ‘dot’ painting from Papunya in 1971-72. The most notable of these, of course, is the story of Albert Namatjira and the Hermannsburg School of watercolour landscape painting, but others of the same period include Western Australian carvers Jack Wherra and Butcher Joe Nangan, watercolour painter Wattie Kurrawarra, as well as painters Joe Rootsey and Segar Passi from Queensland, among many others.
The Barambah Pottery was one such example of thriving cultural activity in Queensland, a pottery studio based in the Aboriginal settlement of Cherbourg, previously Barambah Aboriginal Reserve. It was inspired in part by the work of Michael Cardew (1901-83), the eminent English studio potter who had previously worked with communities in West Africa - Nigeria and Gold Coast (now Ghana) - then in 1968 at Aboriginal communities in Bagot (Darwin) and on Bathurst Island (Tiwi Pottery). The Barambah Pottery was established around 1967, following a feasibility study by Queensland potters Carl McConnell and Jeff Shaw, with McConnell serving as the inaugural instructor.(1)
The pottery was somewhat anomalous: it was set up through a regular state government departmental process - as was nearly everything officially related to Aboriginal people, especially those living in the reserves system - but was conceived and locally managed by well-known artists, who envisioned it as a place of art making rather than as a government curio production depot. McConnell, noted as the most important potter of the post-World War Two generation in Queensland, left after less than a year, after the Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement suggested that he build the promised pottery studio and kiln himself. The attitudes of departmental officials would plague the pottery throughout its existence.
In the six years between the departure of McConnell and the arrival of Kevin Grealy in June 1974, the work of the Barambah Pottery was largely driven by officials of the Queensland Government’s Department of Native Affairs, which insisted that the potters make stereotypical works based on ‘market research’, which suggested that Jolliffe-style cartoons, symbols and designs from other parts of the country, and Aboriginal faces on ashtrays, would sell best.(2) After Grealy’s arrival, and during his tenure until March 1976, the artists were afforded a little more artistic freedom, though departmental officials still tried to control the centre’s output.(3) The pots produced often featured ‘Cherbourg style’ art, in which stylised X-ray and decorated animal paintings - reflective of north-Queensland rock art (where many of Cherbourg’s residents originated) - and particular line and dot motifs predominated. This visual repertoire was mixed during this period with an elegance of form and Japanese-style brushwork, the hallmark of potters such as Cardew, McConnell and Grealy. Although the pottery was quite successful and was well-known both locally and nationally, many specifics about its operation are still unknown and details about the individual artists remain scarce. A wealth of information likely exists in departmental files, awaiting further research and discovery.
These works represent a period in Queensland art during which, for one group of artists, production was controlled by the state. Yet the artists here showed that a mastery of the medium - and the subtle subversion of departmental dictation - meant works of great quality could still be produced.
Bruce McLean, Artlines no.1, 2014, p.50.
1 Kevin Grealy, ‘Barambah Pottery, Cherbourg’, in Pottery in Australia, vol.16, no.2, 1977, pp.3-7.
2 Grealy.
3 Grealy.