lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on Australian Indigenous Art

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209597 Aigner, Katherine (ed.) Australia: The Vatican Mueums Indigenous Collection Edizioni Musei Vaticani, Citta del Vaticano, 2017. Quarto gatefold paperback; 395pp., colour & b&w illustrations. Minor wear only; near fine. The Australian collection at the Vatican mainly originates from two specific times: the establishment of New Norcia monastic community near Perth by Benedictine missionaries Rosendo Salvado and Joseph Serra in 1847, and the great exhibition held at the Vatican in 1925 when between the two world wars, Pope Pius XI asked missionaries around the world to ask the people to send objects to educate the European audience about their spiritual cultural and daily life. Objects have also been gifted to popes on their visits to Australia. The mid to late 1800s and ealy 1900s was a time of enormous change and upheaval for aboriginal people in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. They suffered from the aggressive impacts of pastoral land grabs, a rush for gold and the creation of pearling fleets. Vast tracts of land were being taken up by new settlers to farm sheep and cattle pushing Aboriginal people into isolated pockets of refuge. Changes to the traditional Indigenous homelands were rapid. In the context of these early years of violent frontier conflict and upheaval Yued people in the south west and Gwini and Kulari peoples in the east Kimberley displayed agency by choosing to engage (or not) with religious missions, and left objects with them as gifts of exchange. This catalogue has an emphasis on the cultural and spiritual life of the aforementioned peoples (and including works from the Tiwi Islands). It is an important and unique historical collection of inter-cultural engagement and dialogue. Click here to order $40

85779 Bardon, Geoffrey & James Papunya - A Place Made After the Story The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2009. Reprint: quarto; paperback, with gatefold wrappers; 527pp., with many full-colour illustrations. Mild wear; spine sunned; covers lightly rubbed. Very good to near fine. What started as an exercise to encourage the Aboriginal schoolchildren to record their sand patterns and games grew to involve, at the peak of creativity, as many as thirty tribal men and elders. With teacher Geoffrey Bardon's encouragement, these men worked to preserve their traditional Dreamings and stories in paint. The artistic movement unleashed at Papunya spread over Central Australia and has since achieved international acclaim. 'Papunya: A Place Made After the Story' is a first-hand account of the artists and the works emanating from Papunya. Bardon's exquisitely recorded notes and drawings are here reproduced showing his extensive documentation of the early stages of the painting movement. The book features more than 500 paintings, drawings and photographs from Bardon's personal archive. Click here to order $60

99041 Bardon, Geoffrey & James Bardon Papunya - A Place Made After the Story The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd., Aldershot Hampshire UK, 2006. First edition thus: quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 528pp., with many colour illustrations. Dustwrapper, now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Fine. What started as an exercise to encourage the Aboriginal schoolchildren to record their sand patterns and games grew to involve, at the peak of creativity, as many as thirty tribal men and elders. With teacher Geoffrey Bardon's encouragement, these men worked to preserve their traditional Dreamings and stories in paint. The artistic movement unleashed at Papunya spread over Central Australia and has since achieved international acclaim. Papunya: A Place Made After the Story is a first-hand account of the artists and the works emanating from Papunya. Bardon's exquisitely recorded notes and drawings are here reproduced showing his extensive documentation of the early stages of the painting movement. The book features more than 500 paintings, drawings and photographs from Bardon's personal archive. Click here to order $160

83045 Brandl, E.J. Australian Aboriginal Paintings In Western and Central Arnhem Land Temporal sequences and elements of style in Cadell River and Deaf Adder Creek Art Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra ACT, 1988. Amended edition: folio; hardcover; 214pp., with numerous monochrome illustrations. Very slight rubbing to board edges; else near fine in lightly scuffed dustwrapper with some slight edgewear. In 1958 Joseph Brandl photographed Aboriginal rock paintings on the upper East Alligator River and later recorded sites in the escarpment and other areas of Arnhem Land for several years on his own resources. He then studied anthropology under Professor R.M. Berndt. In 1968 he walked some 400km in the Deaf Adder Creek valley and the sandstone country to the north and south of it locating many painted galleries on behalf of the then Northern Territory Administration. In the same year he investigated Aboriginal art sites on the Cadell River, central Arnhem Land. Click here to order $65

89163 Capon, Edmund, et al. Gamarada / Friends The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney NSW, 1996. Quarto; paperback, with rear endpaper maps; 84pp., with many full-colour illustrations. Small superficial crease to upper rear corner of card cover; else near fine. Exhibition catalogue. Click here to order $25

85065 Clark, Deborah, & Susan Jenkins Culture Warriors Australian Indigenous Art Triennial National Gallery of Australia, Canberra ACT, 2007. Quarto; paperback, with decorated gatefold wrappers; 218pp., with many full-colour illustrations. Near fine. Presenting the work of thirty artists from across all the Australian states and territories, the Triennial demonstrates the incredible range of contemporary indigenous art practice. It is the largest survey show of indigenous art at the National Gallery in more than fifteen years, featuring up to four works by each artist created during the past three years in a variety of media, including painting on bark and canvas, sculpture, textiles, weaving, new media, photomedia, printmaking and installation. Click here to order $40

88183 Demozay, Marion (ed.) Gatherings II: Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art from Queensland Australia Keeaira Press, Southport, 2006. Square quarto paperback; 224pp., colour illustrations. Minor wear; covers mildly scuffed with a few tiny marks. Near fine otherwise. Click here to order $30

94376 Dezuanni, Rebecca, & Kylie Timmins (eds.) Story Place Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane Qld., 2003. Quarto; gatefold paperback; 240pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; light sunning to the covers. Very good. This publication accompanies the first major survey exhibition of historical and contemporary art work from Australia's Cape York Peninsula. For the first time in one book, the art and culture of Cape York is observed through a series of essays, interviews, plus artist and community profiles. Richly illustrated, it features the art work, the people and the environments of Cape York. Click here to order $50

89640 Dyer, Christine Adrian (ed.) Kunwinjku Art from Injalak 1991-1992 The John W. Kluge Commission Museum Art International, North Adelaide SA, 1994. Quarto; paperback; 151pp., with many full-colour illustrations. Mild wear; previous owner's ink inscription to the fifth page; a small mark to the text block fore-edge; mild wear to the covers. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $40

206562 Godden, Elaine (Jutta Malnic, illus.) Rock Paintings of Aboriginal Australia Reed Books Pty. Ltd., French's Forest NSW, 1988. Quarto; hardcover, with upper board titles and decorated endpapers; 128pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; text block and page edges lightly toned. Dustwrapper sunned along the spine panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $35

89191 Hall, Vic Namatjira of the Aranda Rigby, Adelaide SA, 1962. First edition: small quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 55pp., with colour and monochrome plates. Minor wear; offsetting to endpapers; lightly browned text block edges. Illustrated dustwrapper with tiny missing segment at tail of spine panel; scraping at corners and spine panel extremities; small crease on upper front edge. Very good to near fine and wrapper now covered in protective film with white paper backing. The story of the tragic and controversial Australian Aboriginal artist - caught between the world of the black man, into which he had been born, and that of the white man, into which admirers of his landscape painting attempted to thrust him. A moving book, by a writer who knew Albert Namatjira well, and who, in 'Dreamtime Justice', has already shown his understanding of the Aboriginal mind. Click here to order $45

94606 Holmes, Sandra Le Brun Yirawala Painter of the Dreaming Hodder & Stoughton, Rydalmere NSW, 1992. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 160pp., monochrome and colour illustrations. Minor wear; scattered spotting to half-title and title pages with text block edges spotted. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed and slightly edgeworn; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Yirawala was a man of high ritual status and authority. He sought to promote an appreciation of his Kuninjku culture among Europeans in order to protect Kuninjku heritage and land. He was a prolific and highly influential artist who used his ceremonial authority to introduce a number of innovations in western Arnhem Land bark painting. Chief among these was his ability to render countless variations on rarrk clan patterns to infuse his subjects with ancestral power. His work possesses a strange intricate beauty and warm compositions in white, black, brown, ochre and red. Yirawala was raised in the Marrkolidjban region on the Liverpool River before moving his family to Minjilang (Croker Island), where he painted with Jimmy Midjawmidjaw, Paddy Compass Namatbara and January Nangunyari Namiridali. Here, in 1964, he met Sandra Le Brun Holmes, who was to become his patron. Holmes organised his first solo exhibition in 1971, the year Yirawala won the International Co-operation Art Award and was appointed a Member of the British Empire for his services to Aboriginal art. In 1976 the National Gallery of Australia acquired 139 paintings by Yirawala through a program to represent Australia's major artists in depth. Holmes also made two films about Yirawala, one entitled 'The Picasso of Arnhem Land' (1982). Click here to order $45

79327 Johnson, Vivien Michael Jagamara Nelson Craftsman House, Melbourne Vic., 1997. Quarto hardcover, 167pp., colour illustrations. Foxed preliminaries; minor wear; near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Designer of the Parliament House mosaic, Michael Jagamara Nelson is one of the best known Aboriginal artists in Australia. He is also 'a real Warlpiri man', an articulate exponent of Western Desert viewpoints on the internationally famous art movement in which he has played such a key role. In this comprehensive study, illustrated by over 40 of the artist's paintings and dozens of photographs documenting one of the most extraordinary careers in contemporary Australian art. Dr Vivien Johnson interweaves the artist's own perspective on his work with the social and political events which are inseparable from its strength as art. The reader will also be taken on a guided tour by the artist of the Dreaming sites depicted in his paintings, which are the foundation of both his art and his identity. Click here to order $65

99505 Lane, Carly & Franchesca Cubillo (eds.) Undisclosed 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial National Gallery of Australia, Canberra ACT, 2012. Gate-fold paperback, quarto, 160pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. New, remainder. Undisclosed features the work of 20 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from regional, remote and urban communities and is curated by Carly Lane, a Kalkadoon woman from North West Queensland with a background in curatorship, anthropology and art. The artists featured in the exhibition include: Tony Albert, Vernon Ah Kee, Bob Burruwal, Michael Cook, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Nici Cumpston, Fiona Foley, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, Gunybi Ganambarr, Julie Gough, Lindsay Harris, Jonathan Jones, Danie Mellor, Naata Nungurrayi, Maria Josette Orsto, Daniel Walbidi, Christian Thompson, Alick Tipoti, Lena Yarinkura and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. "The artists have been selected for their commitment to excellence and their daring to explore new fields of practice and artistic vision, these artists both inform and redefine contemporary Indigenous art as we presently know it," said Lane. "I chose the theme unDisclosed to draw attention to the not so apparent but equally important messages often contained in Indigenous art. The exhibition explores the spoken and unspoken, the known and the unknown, what can be revealed and what cannot."unDisclosed celebrates the diversity of contemporary Indigenous art with painting on canvas and bark, sculpture, weaving, new media, photo-media, print-making, and installation work." Click here to order $25

90226 Lowe, Pat & Jimmy Pike Jilji: Life in the Great Sandy Desert - signed by Pat Lowe Magabala Books, Broome WA, 1990. Quarto; hardcover, with white upper board titling and decorated endpapers; 147pp., with many colour illustrations. Minor wear; institution stamp on half-title page and presentation date handwritten on the title page; mild wear to board edges and corners. One or two tiny scrapes on the dustwrapper edges; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. This book describes some of the features of life in the desert as told or shown by people who once lived here. Where there has been no real change, the present tense is used; for accuracy, however, when life is described as it was lived by nomadic bands before they settled, the past is used. The desert language in the text is Walmajarri. Click here to order $50

90191 McCulloch, Susan Contemporary Aboriginal Art A Guide to the Rebirth of an Ancient Culture Allen & Unwin, St Leonards NSW, 1999. First edition: quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 240pp., with many colour illustrations. Minor wear only; a few scattered spots on the text block edges and mild wear to lower board edges and corners. Near fine in like dustwrapper, now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Since the renaissance of traditional Aboriginal art began at the small central Australian desert community of Papunya in 1971, Aboriginal art has become Australia's most dynamic visual arts practice. The cross-hatched bark paintings from Arnhem Land; the multi-layered 'dot' paintings from central Australia; the ochre paintings of Western Australia's west Kimberley painters; the bright 'naif' watercolours of the Fitzroy Crossing artists from the east Kimberley; and the widely divergent individual expressions of urban artists, are only some of the prolific expressions of this rich evolving tradition. This book explores Australia's contrasting landscapes and the historic circumstances of the growth of this vibrant art movement. Biographical information about major artists and their histories within at least twenty regional locations are also provided. Click here to order $45

91412 McDonald, Ewen (ed.) (Christopher Snee, illus.) Painted Dreams Western Paintings from the Johnson Collection National Gallery of NSW, Sydney NSW, 1995. Quarto; paperback; 47pp., with many full-colour illustrations. Minor wear to cover edges; couple of small red stain to lower obverse edge of front card cover. Near fine otherwise. Exhibition catalogue. Click here to order $45

91523 Mualgau Minaral Artist Collective Gelam Nguzu Kazi - Dugong My Son The first exhibition of limited edition linocuts by the artists of the Mualgau Minaral Artist Collective from Mua Island in the Torres Strait Kubin Community Council, Mua Island Torres Strait via Thursday Island Qld., 2001. Octavo; paperback; 64pp. with many full-colour illustrations. Moderate wear; covers rubbed. Very good. Click here to order $20

204563 Parker, Adrian Images in Ochre - signed The Art and Craft of the Kunwinjku J.B. Publishing, Marleston, 2004. Quarto paperback; 96pp., colour illustrations. Inscribed in ink by the author. One or two small marks on text block edges; slightly rubbed covers with mild wear to edges. Very good. Click here to order $35

201130 Quaill, Avril Marking Our Times: Selected works of art from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collection at the National Gallery of Australia National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1996. Quarto paperback; 75pp., colour plates. Mild rubbing to covers with slight wear to edges and corners. Very good to near fine. Celebrating the richness and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in contemporary Australia and in the National Gallery's collection, this book highlights a selection of major artists and features new developments in media and artistic idioms. From bark paintings and weaving to photography, video and installations, it encompasses artists from Arnhem Land, Wadeye and the islands of the Tiwi people near Darwin, the central Australian desert regions, the Kimberley, north Queensland and the Torres Strait, as well as the urban and rural areas of the continent's seaboard. Click here to order $20

206559 Ryan, Judith Paint Up Big Warlpiri Women's Art of Lajamanu National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Vic., nd. Quarto; gatefold paperback, with illustrated wrappers; 80pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; covers lightly rubbed and edgeworn; spine sunned. Very good. Exhibition catalogue. Click here to order $25

206558 Ryan, Judith Spirit in Land bark paintings from Arnhem Land National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Vic., nd. Quarto; gatefold paperback, with illustrated wrappers; 120pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; covers lightly rubbed and edgeworn; spine sunned. Very good. Exhibition catalogue. Click here to order $25

91410 Ryan, Judith, & Robyn Healy Raika Wara Long Cloth from Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Vic., 2000. Quarto; gatefold paperback; 132pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear to cover edges and corners and a few spots on upper text block edges; mild toning to page edges. Very good to near fine otherwise. This important exhibition catalogue celebrates the use of an introduced medium, which has encouraged a daring break with tradition in contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. In focussing on painted and printed textiles, and on the last three decades, 'Raiki Wara' draws attention to the contribution of indigenous artists throughout Australia who have made this new medium their own. Click here to order $25

201131 Ryan, Judith (with an essay by Geoffrey Bardon) Mythscapes: Aboriginal Art of the Desert from the National Gallery of Victoria National Gallery of Victoria, nd. Quarto gatefold paperback; 104pp., colour and monochrome illustrations with a fold-out illustration. Mild rubbing to covers, wear to edges and corners and creased spine; sticker residue on upper front corner. Very good. One of the most interesting art movements of modern times began when art teacher Geoffrey Bardon, working in the Papunya settlement 250 miles from Alice Springs in the Western desert of Australia, asked a group of children to paint their school house with the curious design motifs he had noticed. The youngsters asked their elders to do it. From those first five rudimentary school murals, Bardon supplied the community with paints, brushes and canvases, spawning the creation of art that has attracted buyers around the world. The idea spread like wild yams in the bush. Geoffrey Bardon wrote; ' In 1980 I sometimes thought, among those new fires and shattered expectations, that an older Australia was passing away forever, that our own symmetries had been set aside and made helpless, and that a new visualization and idea of the continent had come forth, quite literally, out of that burning or freezing red sand. It is hard to be clear about an entire continent wondrously re-perceived by the brutally rejected, and sick, and poor. Yet this is what occurred. This was the gift that time gave and I know this, in my heart, for I was there'. Click here to order $25

33537 Smith, Heide Tiwi The Life and Art of Australia's Tiwi People Angus & Robertson, Sydney NSW, 1990. Quarto; hardcover; unpaginated, with many colour and monochrome plates throughout. Board edges very slightly worn; very light spotting to upper text block edges. Dustwrapper slightly discoloured at edges of rear panel (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Else very good to near fine. For thousands of years the Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands in northern Australia believed that their two islands composed the entire world of living people. Their Dreamtime, their culture, flowed from this belief. The geographical isolation of the Tiwi has resulted in art forms that are unique to them and radically different from those of mainland Aborigines: majestic funeral (Pukumani) poles; bird carvings; bark baskets (tungas); ceremonial ornaments and jewellery; and silk-screened fabrics are just some of the artefacts listed here. Click here to order $35

200702 [State Art Galleries of Australia] Australian Aboriginal Art Bark Paintings; Carved Figures; Sacred and Secular Objects State Art Galleries of Australia, 1960-61. Stapled small quarto paperback, 34pp, colour frontispiece and monochrome plates. Owner's name; mild wear to card covers; else very good. Click here to order $25

61196 Strocchi, Marina (ed.) Ikuntji Paintings from Haasts Bluff 1992-1994 IAD Press, Alice Springs, 1995. Quarto paperback, 109pp., colour illustrations. Minor wear; very good to near fine. Exhibition catalogue. The Aboriginal community of Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff) in Australia's Northern Territory has long been associated with painting: firstly, through its ties with Albert Namatjira and the watercolour artists of the Hermannsburg School and, secondly through the renowned work of the Papunya Tula artists. Now, since the establishment of their own arts centre in 1992, Ikuntji artists have emerged from the shadow of their famous neighbours. In a short time, the artists featured in this book have built a reputation for a distinct and refreshing style. Click here to order $30

11391 Sutton, Peter (ed.) Dreamings The Art of Aboriginal Australia Viking/Penguin Group Ltd., Ringwood Vic., 1989. Square quarto; hardcover; 266pp., 260 monochrome and colour illustrations. Some spots to text block edges, minor wear. Otherwise near fine in like dustwrapper. This book introduces the reader to the extraordinary and arresting art practised by a unique people. Through illuminating narrative and with over 150 full colour illustrations, it reveals a culture which is among the most ancient known, yet one whose artistic vitality is remarkable. In both traditional and more recently introduced media, Aboriginal artists evoke their beliefs about the universe and their relationships with places, animals, plants and other people. Why they do this, and what their art and beliefs mean in today's world, are, in part, the book's subjects. Click here to order $65

83044 Various Contemporary Aboriginal Art The Robert Holmes a Court Collection Heytesbury Holdings, Perth WA, 1990. Quarto; paperback; 125pp., with many colour illustrations. Foxed preliminaries; lightly spotted text block edges; sunned spine; crease to leading edge of front card cover. Else good. Click here to order $20

206602 Walsh, Grahame L. Australia's Greatest Rock Art E.J. Brill - Robert Brown & Associates, Bathurst NSW, 1988. Oblong quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine and upper board titling and blind-stamped decoration; 312pp., many colour illustrations. Minor wear; a few small marks and spots to the text block upper edge; faint scattered spotting to half-title page. Mild rubbing to the dustwrapper; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Of the continents, Australia's rock art riches stand out. Art has been created in different environments ranging from desert to reef, and the tropics to snow-covered mountains. Styles vary from region to region, environment to environment. Site recording is highlighting the extent and vast numbers of rock art sites in Australia. Realization of the antiquity, diversity and site numbers, tangible links with contemporary Aboriginal culture, and personal public experience with managed art sites are stimulating more public and scientific attention. This was the first book to attempt an overview of Australian rock art to the general reader, illustrating it in context. The reader is introduced to the subject with historic accounts of European discovery and attitudes to rock art. The antiquity, significance and purpose of rock art and its mythology is explained. Close liaison between the author and Aboriginal caretakers has ensured the avoidance of sensitive detail and the exact locations of art sites are not revealed. Click here to order $750

52458 Willsteed, Theresa (ed.) Crossing Country The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney NSW, 2004. Square quarto; paperback; 240pp., monochrome and colour illustrations. Cover lightly worn at edges. Very good to near fine. This book is from an exhibition devoted to the art and artists of the communities to the west of Maningrida, and demonstrates the diversity of media, from bark paintings to fibre works, characteristic of the region. The natural materials work in harmony and convey the sense of place. 'Crossing Country' includes the work of many of the region's most distinguished contemporary artists. The legacy of the pre-eminent artists of previous generations such as Paddy Compass Namatbara, Yirawala and Peter Marralwanga is to be seen in the works of current senior artists including Jimmy Njiminjuma, John Mawurndjul and Ivan Mamirrkki. Click here to order $50