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Australian art

Art in Australia appears to date back at least 40,000 years, judging by radiocarbon dates obtained from organic material trapped in varnish covering apparently abstract rock engravings in South Australia, but may be even older, since worn crayons of ochre have been found in occupation layers of more than 50,000 years ago. Aboriginal art is closely linked with religion and mythology, notably the Dreamtime creation stories. In the pre-colonial era pictures and decorated objects, including rock and bark paintings, were produced in nearly all settled areas. Subjects included humans, animals, and geometric ornament. The ‘X-ray style’, showing the inner organs in an animal portrait, is unique to Australian Aboriginal art. True Aboriginal art is now rare.

18th-19th centuries

After European settlers arrived in Australia in the 18th century, Western examples of art developed. At first immigrant artists, mostly from Britain, France, and Germany, produced documentary works, depicting the Aborigines, the wildlife, and the environment, and illustrating the gradual development of Sydney. By the late 19th century the works of Australian landscape artists such as Tom Roberts, the Heidelberg School, and Arthur Streeton (1867-1943) were gaining recognition outside Australia.

20th-21st centuries

The figurative painters William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Sidney Nolan, and Albert Namatjira are among Australia's best-known modern artists. Sidney Nolan created a highly individual vision of the Australian landscape and of such folk heroes as Ned Kelly.

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