A study of the Art gallery of New South Wales and Australian aboriginal art: aboriginal perspectives and reperesentations in state art galleries

Vanessa Russ

Research output: ThesisDoctoral Thesis

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Abstract

This study of the Art Gallery of New South Wales explores the role that Australian Aboriginal art has had in one important state institution. It also provides the groundwork for furthering our understanding of how state art galleries manage their discourses of Australian and Aboriginal identities. The search by Aboriginal people, for belonging and trust in national representations, continues to challenge state art galleries. If as art historian Amelia Jones suggests the notion of art, art history and art institutions are inventions, then such inventions should make room for new art and new art theory (Jones 23). While state art galleries are currently working to generate new displays of Australian art that include Australian Aboriginal art, there remains no complete study of how any state art gallery has managed its Aboriginal collections. This study of the role of Australian Aboriginal art within the Art Gallery of New South Wales provides evidence of personal advocacy as the driving force behind its achievements. Here personal advocacy and by extension, cultural subjectivity, is the key to the creation of an art gallery.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
Publication statusUnpublished - 2013

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