Acquiring and presenting Aboriginal art in art museums: my first 30 years

Abstract

Today, Aboriginal art is celebrated as one of the most popular areas in any Australian art museum. The author charts his role in presenting and acquiring Aboriginal art as art, in art museums, against the backdrop of related developments in the Australian art world. He traces developments from the late 1970s when he was director of the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, though his 23 years at the Art Gallery of South Australia, as a curator then director, to his current position as director of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, which now has the largest collection and display of Australian Indigenous art. He also describes the steady progress long before his time, some of which has not been documented before, made by art museums around Australia as they gradually accepted, collected and prominently displayed Aboriginal art. He was invited to present this paper.