Indigenous artists from the center of the Australian continent unleashed a wave of art production in the 1970s that has been described as a renaissance of the worldâs oldest living cultures. A few masters of this unusual chapter of art history are assembled here. Each is known to use exuberant colors and visual conventions that may induce vertigo or a sense of displacement from usual perspectives.
Leaves (detail), 2002, Gloria Tamerr Petyarre, Australian Aboriginal, Anmatyerr people, Utopia, Central Desert, Northern Territory, born 1938, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 70 7/8 x 157 1/2in., Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan, in honor of Bagley and Virginia Wright, and in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2012.21. © Gloria Petyarre, Photo: Paul Macapia.