What's On - Events in the Galleries
Precinct Pass: $10 full, $7 conc & child, $30 family (2 Ad, 2 Ch), Free for NT ResidentsAboriginal Cultural Art Tour
Learn about the connections between the Dreaming - the Altyerre - contemporary Aboriginal art and the land of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), rich in songs, dance and stories.
Experience an Aboriginal view of the World and develop a deeper meaning of ancient Aboriginal culture.
Journey through a visual country and be inspired by spiritual beings from the past, present and future, as you experience the exhibition, “Origins to Innovation: Aboriginal Art in Central Australia”.
Share in the ancient knowledge of the Arrernte people, in this, their country.
Tour Cost: $20pp (includes Precinct entry)
Tours run Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11am and 2pm
Bookings are essential. Please phone (08) 8951 1121.
Click here for printable flyer
In This Light: Albert Namatjira and the Hermannsburg Watercolourists
Image: Enos Namatjira, Sunset on The Amphitheatre, 1959, watercolour on paper
On loan from the Musuem and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
The water colour paintings by Albert Namatjira are renowned for their sensitive portrayal of Western Arrernte country from around Alice Springs Hermannsburg and Haasts Bluff area. The strong light, particularly at sunrise and sunset, produce stunning colours and deep shadows. Albert Namatjira, his family and contemporaries have captured this exceptional light in this exhibition with water colour paintings focussing on Hermannsburg, Palm Valley, Ormiston and Glen Helen.
Albert Namatjira was a household name in Australia in the 1950’s and internationally renowned. He was feted for his beautiful watercolour paintings from this region. In this Light also refers to the immense influence that Albert Namatjira had on subsequent generations of the Hermannsburg watercolour artists and many other Aboriginal artists who work using acrylic dot paintings to relate their ancestral stories.
Permanent Exhibition
Origins to Innovations: Aboriginal Art in Central Australia
Image: Ruby Tjangawa Williamson, "Puli Murpu"', acrylic on linen, 122 x 152.5 cm, 2007
Origins to Innovations: Aboriginal Art in Central Australia is a dedicated, permanent exhibition of Aboriginal art, with works drawn primarily from the Araluen Art Collection. Origins to Innovations traces and explores the development of Aboriginal art in Central Australia, from the early 1930’s through to current time, linking displays in the Albert Namatjira Gallery and the early watercolor landscape tradition. This exhibition explores the origins of Aboriginal art in cultural practice and the development and innovative qualities of key Central Desert artist and arts communities.
A welcome to country display greets visitors to the exhibition, introducing a selection of works by of Central, Western and Eastern Arrernte artists, and includes an audio visual display featuring the Antulye Women’s Dance group, based in and around Alice Springs.
An introduction to the early practice of textile production in Aboriginal art centres then leads on to an exploration of the Papunya movement and the early symbolic works that emerged in the early 1970’s through to the early to mid 1980’s. The exhibition then traces the developments through symbolism and abstraction in more recent times, and in a series of works under the theme of Spirit Country, looks at the visual interpretations of spirits in the land and the spiritual connection to land, western religions and Aboriginal culture. The exhibition then culminates in a look at recent developments in crafts practice and a children’s interactive area based on works featured in the exhibition.
Tours of the exhibition, including an introduction to concepts related to the Altyerre (dreaming) and Aboriginal cultural traditions in relation to arts practice are available on request.
Araluen Arts Centre
Permanent Exhibition
Paper Cuts
Featuring Works from Non Indigenous Artists Represented in the Araluen Collections
Image: Jennie Nayton, Seaform, 2007, h andcut and folded archival photograph, 71 x 122 x 9 cm
A new exhibition, Paper Cuts, featuring works by non Indigenous artists represented in the Araluen Collections opens today, Monday 26 October 2009, at the Araluen Arts Centre.
The works in the exhibition highlight both eccentric and innovative works on paper in the Collection holdings and include photographs, watercolour paintings, drawings and prints by from national and local artists.
Works are drawn primarily from the Collection of the Alice Springs Town Council - especially the Alice Springs Art Foundation component of the Collection - and include both donations and acquisitions.
Featured artists from Alice Springs include Christine Godden, Rod Moss, Myrtle Noske and Sally Mumford, while nationally recognised artists include John Wolseley, Mike Parr, Deborah Paawe and Helen Geier.
The work, Undoolya Road Eastside, by Myrtle Noske, a charcoal and chalk drawing, dates from 1950 and was kindly donated by the artist.
The Helen Geier work in the exhibition, Half Size Screen V, was purchased from an exhibition held at the Araluen Arts Centre by the artist in 2008 and is an intriguing three dimensional work. As the artist has stated:
This work on paper explores my response to the local landscape: its clarity of light and deep purple shadows: the physical layering and sense of suspension in space often found in the framed views in the ‘gaps’: its illusive imagery, camouflage and the transforming effects of light.
The name of the exhibition comes from a work by Alison Alder, one of the most recent acquisitions in the exhibition, from the 2008 Alice Prize, and purchased for the Collection with the assistance of the Alice Springs Art Foundation. According ot the artist in her statement at the time:
The paper cuts are all made from paper that has been screen printed using images of the outback Australia that I have taken from old book covers. It isn't a random process in that I select the images in the first place and also adjust the colour palette
The contrast of local artists reflecting on their experience in the Alice Springs region and the national artists who bring a more urbane sensibility with individual perceptions relating to people and place is an overarching theme of the exhibition, which highlights works from the 1950's to 2008.
| Araluen Arts Centre |
| Exhibition Open until Early 2010 |
