POSSESSIONS by Nicholas Thomas ( 9780500280973 ) - Books & Audio Books at Pickabook.co.uk

Item Details

Title:

POSSESSIONS
INDIGENOUS ART/COLONIAL CULTURE

By:

Format:

Paperback

List price:	£18.95
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ISBN 10:

0500280975

ISBN 13:

9780500280973

Publisher:

THAMES & HUDSON LTD

Pub. date:

19 March, 1999

Series:

Interplay S.

Pages:

304

Description:

Tribal art has greatly inspired much 20th-century Western art. But is this a cross-cultural discovery to be celebrated, or another example of Western colonial appropriation? This work, focusing on countries such as Australia and New Zealand, argues that both views are too simplistic.

Synopsis:

Tribal art has been one of the great inspirations of 20th-century Western art. Europeans such as Picasso, Matisse, Ernst and Brancusi created their own responses to masks, sculpture and other forms of African, Oceanic and American art. But is this a cross-cultural discovery to be celebrated, or just one more example of Western colonial appropriation? This work seeks to prove that both viewpoints are too simplistic. It focuses on the distinctive situation of the settler society - countries such as Australia and New Zealand in which large numbers of Europeans made their home, displacing but never entirely eclipsing native peoples. Settler artists and designers have drawn on indigenous motifs and styles to create art. Yet powerful indigenous art traditions have also been used to assert the presence of native peoples and their prior claim to sovereignty. Cultural exchange proves to be a two-way process, and an unpredictable one: much contemporary indigenous art draws on modern Western art, while affirming ancestral values and rejecting the European appropriation of tribal culture.

Illustrations:

183 illustrations, 20 in colour

Publication:

Imprint:

Thames & Hudson Ltd

Returns:

Non-returnable

Some other items by this author:

A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD (HB)

ADVANCING EAST ASIAN REGIONALISM