Jubilee exhibition of Australian art

Linear engravings are outline drawings in which the contours of the depicted figure are the famous rock paintings in the Kiml)erleys, first discovered by Sir George Grey over are more or less deeply incised, first by pecking with a hamme r stone or with a stone a century ago, but scientifically studied and explained for the first time by Prof. A. P. chisel, a frequently employed method consisting o f making a dotted line of holes and Elkin in 1930. There is no naturalism, notwithstanding a more or less realistic animal subsequently removing the walls between them. I n the course of time, engraved lines form here and there. Instead we are faced with a n entirely eXpressionistic art, the exhibition may be either deepened by climatic influences or the whole drawing may be gradually of originally, strictly esoteric things----the reflections o f the spiritual experiences o f past washed off, according to the quality and situation o f the rock. Most of the numerous generations o f aborigines, the figures o f their mythology and o f their dreams. All these engravings in the Sydney district are naturalistic contours of men and animals, and figures, the wondjinas, have certain h uma n features b u t are not completely huma n in ap there are both single representations and complete scenes showing a multitude o f h uma n pearance; some o f them have distorted limbs, disfigured by abnormalities, bu t all have or animal figures, not infrequently depicted in distinct movements. Perhaps still more one conspicuous feature in common—the head, which is painted white, without eyes but remarkable are certain progressive features o f draughtsmanship, such as representations with empty black sockets instead, and without a mouth. This is nothing else b u t the o f h uma n figures, both full face a nd in profile, overlapping contours, and even attempts representation o f a h uma n skull, without the mandible—in fact, it is a n excellent picture at foreshortening. But the most astonishing phenomenon is the enormous size o f some o f a skull, and several authentic photographs show rows o f wondjina figures painted on a Australian petroglyphs. Not only groups and scenes, but, not infrequently, single figures, wall overhanging a n open rock shelter lined with rows o f bleached real skulls. Technically, such as those o f a whale a nd o f a gigantic bird, resembling the extinct mo a o f New these are not drawings, bu t real paintings, and their aesthetic attraction is the astonishing Zealand (both in the Kuringai Chase Reserve, near Sydney) are o f very large dimensions, variety o f colours—white, black, yellow ochre, a bright red resembling vermilion, Indian sometimes four, six, even u p to twenty yards long, red, and a bluish-grey. Naturalistic drawing in bold contours is not really primitive. I t represents a rather Lastly, a t Oenpelli, east o f about the middle o f the East Alligator River, in the Northern advanced stage o f a r t technique; and, indeed, Professor Elkin has demonstrated t ha t the Territory, we find a different kind o f polychrome rock paintings. They are a maze of petroglyphs in the Sydney district were still a living a r t a t the time o f white settlement, naturalistic figures, and they are often done in the style o f the Kakadu bark paintings first although their earliest period is not known. I n comparison, the p a i n t i n g s o n the walls o f published by Sir Baldwin Spencer, i.e., the so-called 'X-ray' pictures, in which the artist a numbe r o f rock shelters in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria is not content with depicting wha t he actually sees, b u t adds wha t he knows is there as can easily be regarded as more primitive because they almost always have a very simple well, such as the spine and inner organs. This brings us to the hark paintings generally. type o f figures done in strokes, a nd thus not in outlined spaces. This type is well known Bark paintings are the most prominent art technique in the coastal areas o f Arnhem from many parts of the world, which implies universal similarities but should not lead to Land. Apart from the X-ray paintings o f the Kakadu people, we find other regional and premature theories. T h e ' p i n ' type, consisting o f one vertical stroke for neck a n d trunk, even strictly local art styles. There is, for example, the style o f the Maung tribe, which has crowned by a thick dot for the head and simple strokes attached to the figure as limbs--a been described by Mr. C. P. Mountford. We may define it as a stylized naturalism. I t has type first discovered in the cave paintings of eastern Spain a n d also in some o f the South a remarkable decorative quality, a n d the way the aboriginal painter disposes o f a given African rock paintings—is not missing in Australia. Extremely simple as this style ma y be, space without 'overloading' it is admirable. T h e same can be said o f the style o f Yirrkalla, it is not necessarily really ' p r imi t i ve ' ; rather could it be described as a n excellent method perhaps o f all the styles the most decorative. At the same time, however, the meaning of o f doing quick sketches, not only o f 'static' figures, b u t also o f all sorts o f attitudes a nd the designs is essentially esoteric, and the knowledge o f their true significance is important movements and especially dynamic compositions o f whole groups. And, indeed, rows of not only from the point o f view o f primitive religion a nd mythology, bu t also as a basis for 'dancing' human figures painted in red or yellow ochre on the walls o f our 'aboriginal our aesthetic enjoyment o f their formal qualities. galleries' are interpreted as representations o f corrohorees. For scenic composition, On e o f the local styles o f bark paintings deserves special mention—the paintings the most remarkable rock painting is that a t Glen Isla—a painted wall protected by o f the Ingura people o f Groote Eylandt. Here we find actually a number of different styles, a huge overhanging rock, surrounded by thick shrubs and rather rough country on the bu t it seems that these are, to some extent, the personal styles o f individual artists. Several western slope of the Victoria Range. During a n excursion made by members o f the o f these Ingura painters are known by name, and their styles range from a plain descrip History Department o f the University o f Melbourne quite recently (October, 1950), tive naturalism to symbolical forms. Although ritual objects are represented, the bark it was found that the illustration o f the Glen Isla rock paintings first published by the paintings o f Groote Eylandt are not themselves ritual implements. They are done, as Rev. J o h n Mathew, and subsequently copied by other authors, is not accurate; but No rman B. Tindale told us, during the enforced leisure in the rain period, and thus, in the while the order o f figures and thus the composition o f the painting as a whole is also dif- first place, for the fun o f doing it, also as decoration o f the hut. However, some o f the ferent, many details were found tobeas recorded by Mathew. Thus we find hunting scenes, paintings are used to teach the children, and this is why so many of the bark sheets from groups o f human figures, and also sketches o f the vegetation, such as grass and at least Groote Eylandt are painted all over with altogether different and incoherent things in a one tree. This, then, is perhaps the most precious relic o f earlier aboriginal art in Victoria rather haphazard arrangement. Ot he r pieces, on the other hand, are distinguished by their for ourselves a t any rate it is 'prehistoric.' good composition. All these works o f the eastern and south-eastern areas are predominantly naturalistic, - a fact which has nothing to do with their function and is also not affected by the sporadic presence o f apparently 'abstract' and, functionally, symbolical designs. Totally different 6