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Aboriginal art

The country and the landscape is the cornerstone of Aboriginal culture. The country is the enduring substance created by the actions of the ancestors that were set long ago. When the Aboriginal people wander through their country today, they see the visible traces of their “dreamings”, captured in every rock, in every hill, in every stream or in every natural formation of the landscape. Because of this relationship and because of their “dreamings”, the people who live in this country consider themselves to belong to this country and also express this in their art.

There are images that can be seen from a birds eye view in the sense of aerial photographs - but at the same time from below, where the spirit, soul and bones of the ancestors rest. In this way, the images refer symbolically to places that really exist. In some regions, the arrangement of the symbols related to the square depends on the geographical location and the events that took place there at the time of the ancestors.

Throughout history, these symbols have been painted on peoples bodies during ceremonial performances to transform them and bring them into contact with the world of the ancestors.

Australian Aboriginal art is one of the oldest art traditions in the world to date. The most important wisdom of the indigenous society was passed on through different types of storytelling - as an oral tradition, as a dance or song, but also in painted stories. Traditional symbols are an integral part of contemporary Aboriginal art. The Aborigines have an old custom, in the context of which they use their traditional representations and symbols. Whatever surface these representations are applied to, be it the body of a person taking part in a ceremony or a sign, they have the power to charge people or objects with religious meaning and power.

The contemporary artistic work of the Australian Aborigines also shows topics related to the dream time and often called dreamings.

Dreamtime is the period in which fundamental creative acts were carried out by the first ancestors of human beings: spirits, heroes and heroines who created the pattern of nature and life and shaped the environment of man.

Dreamtime is both a process and an era. It started when the world was young and unshaped, but never ended.

The ancestors who created preservation laws and patterns are still as alive today as they were at the time of their original actions.

For the Aborigines, the sacred past, the Dreamtime, is also the sacred present, the Eternal Dreamtime, the eternal dream time. Dreamtime is often understood as an age, but this European concept of a period in the past does not include its actual meaning. Dreamtime is not a long past era, but a continuous entity from which people come, who renews people and to whom people return through dreaming. Art is a way for the Aboriginal people to communicate with the Dreamtime and to keep their unity with it.

Australian Aboriginal art is one of the oldest art traditions in the world to date. The most important wisdom of the indigenous society was passed on through different types of storytelling - as an oral tradition, as a dance or song, but also in painted stories
Die Kunst der Aborigines
Australian Aboriginal art is one of the oldest art traditions in the world to date. The most important wisdom of the indigenous society was passed on through different types of storytelling - as an oral tradition, as a dance or song, but also in painted stories
Die Kunst der Aborigines
Australian Aboriginal art is one of the oldest art traditions in the world to date. The most important wisdom of the indigenous society was passed on through different types of storytelling - as an oral tradition, as a dance or song, but also in painted stories
Die Kunst der Aborigines

E x h i b i t i o n s

Paintings from Central Desert and Yuendumu

The exhibition took place from 07.07.2016 to 16.07.2016 in the Roots Gallery at Ulmenstrasse 41 in Hamburg

Kudditji Kngwarreye and other artists from Utopia

The exhibition opened on July 25, 2015 at Bar Italia, Eppendorfer Landstrasse 61, Hamburg

Paintings from Central Desert

The exhibition took place from July 24th, 2015 to July 1st, 2015 in the Roots Gallery at Ulmenstrasse 41 in Hamburg

Kudditji Kngwarreye, Sarrita King – two stars of aboroginal art

The exhibition took place from November 30th, 2014 to December 7th, 2014 in the Roots Gallery at Ulmenstrasse 41 in Hamburg

Dreamings – Malerei der Australischen Aborigines

The exhibition took place from August 25th, 2013 to January 1st, 2014 in the Ernst Barlach Haus in Hamburg

Indigenous Art Code

We are member of Indigenous Art Code!

For us, the ethical standard for the trade with artworks of the aborigines are a must. We support the work of Indigenous Art Code and see it as our obligation to ensure faire conditions for our artists.

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