A Power Point by Kim Silbaugh
THE DREAMING
Aboriginal art dates as far back as 50,000 years ago. The earliest
works are drawings and carvings on rocks. In some area of
Australia, Aborigine artists still make their own paints and brushes.
In the northern part of Australia, the X-ray painting is still being
created today. Tree bark is used in place of canvas. In the western
desert areas, where Papunya dot paintings are made, 20th century
art materials are being used to produce millennia old imagery. In
both cases, the imagery relates to Dreaming. The Dreaming is the
time of creation whose stories explain how the landscape was
made by super beings. Along with the Dreaming stories, the rights
to paint specific images from them, are past down from generation
to generation.
These works of art are of interest for what they tell us about
Aborigine culture as well as their appeal to contemporary art.
“Autumn Rhythm”
Jackson Pollack
Jackson Pollack was a 20th Century
American artist who painted in the
style of Abstract Expressionist.
“She-wolf”
Jackson Pollack
Ancient
Aboriginal Art
Jackson Pollack
While both of these pain tings
have a similar feel, they are
separated by thousands of
years, thousands of miles, and 2
very different cultures.
Traditional Art Materials
Minerals are ground into powdered pigment
Pigments are applied with brushes made
from human hair or with sticks that have
been flattened and frayed at the ends.
Papunya dot paintings are currently made with 20th century materials of
acrylic paint on canvas.
Papunya
“Muliera Two by Bob Tjungurrayi
The painting depicts ceremonial body paint. Men paint curving lines from their
ankles to their shoulders and adorn themselves with a plant fiber called Wamulu.
The fiber has colors added and is represented by the background dots.
“Women Collecting Bush Plums by Irene Naparula
The painting shows women picking bush plums. Each have their own digging stick
and coolamon (wooden bowl) to collect food. The dot paintings show the landscape
from an aerial view.
Aerial View of central Australia near Ayers Rock
This dot painting show the rhythm of a city as viewed
from above
Can you see the rhythm in this aerial view. Try to
do a sketch showing the major lines and
intersections. What colors would you use to
create a dot painting form this?
The Forbidden City from above
Beijing, China
The Pyramids
Egypt
Central Park
New York
Aerial view of a
neighborhood
Can you use this picture to make a dot painting?
See some examples on the next slide.
Close your eyes and create an aerial view
of your neighborhood. Take this sketch and
make it into your very personal dot painting.
The "X-ray" tradition in Aboriginal art is thought
to have developed around 2000 B.C. and
continues to the present day. As its name
implies, the X-ray style depicts animals or
human figures in which the internal organs and
bone structures are clearly visible. X-ray art
includes sacred images of ancestral
supernatural beings as well as secular works
depicting fish and animals that were important
food sources. In many instances, the paintings
show fish and game species from the local area.
Through the creation of X-ray art, Aboriginal
painters express their ongoing relationships with
the natural and supernatural worlds.
To create an X-ray image, the artist begins by
painting a silhouette of the figure, often in white, and
then adding the internal details in red or yellow. For
red, yellow, and white paints, the artist uses natural
ocher pigments mined from mineral deposits, while
black is derived from charcoal. Early X-ray images
depict the backbone, ribs, and internal organs of
humans and animals. Later examples also include
features such as muscle masses, body fat, optic
nerves, and breast milk in women. Some works
created after European contact even show rifles with
bullets visible inside them.
Contemporary X-Ray drawing
Go to this web site and try your hand at becoming
an X-Ray painter.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/artists/xraystyle/
Norval Morrisseau was born in the early 1930s on the
Sandy Point Lake Reserve north of Thunder Bay in
Ontario Canada.
He was raised by his Grandparents and through them
learned traditional Ojibwa customs, values and beliefs. It
was in his youth that he received - from his Grandfather
- his "mission" to share through art, all of those things
he was taught to respect about Ojibwa culture.
During the 1950's, Morrisseau was hospitalized with
Tuberculosis. While in hospital, he began painting and
drawing his visions on birch bark and brown paper bags
... he painted visions which were uniquely his own.
Later, in the 1960's he traveled widely to bush
communities in Canada and visited some northern
Minnesota reservations where he met with many who
today are considered knowledgeable elders, both to
learn from them and to teach. He taught by painting, as
well as writing.
A medicine man or shaman, Morrisseau developed a
style which has since evolved and been used by many
Native artists. The style is called the Eastern Woodland
Style and can be seen in the works of Daphne Odjig,
Carl Ray and Blake Debassige.His style often shows
both the exterior and interior of an animal, similar to the
X-Ray paintings of the Aboriginal Art of Australia.
Go to the following web site by clicking on this link to explore
the various animals native to Australia. X-Ray paintings
usually use these animals as their subject matter. Now go to
the second link. This shows animals native to Wyoming.
Select one animal and complete an X-Ray drawing of this
Wyoming animal. Complete your painting by creating a
decorative background typical of Australian paintings.
Australian animals
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/coloring/Australia.shtml
Wyoming animals http://wyoming.gov/kids/wildlife.asp
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video 3 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Aboriginal dancers decorate not only bark but
also their bodies in the X-Ray and dot painting
style.