Author Description

This new paperback version of the 1990 third edition includes a detailed account of the great changes which altered the art scene during the 1960s, such as abstract expressionism, Pop Art and colour painting. Peter Fuller, writing in the Independent - ` As a study of its chosen subject, the book is a tour de force, unlikely ever to be superseded. ' As in the first and second editions, the relationship between new influences from abroad and the changing political, social and artistic environments in Australia remains the central theme. Painting as an art form underwent a crisis throughout the world in the 1960s. Australian artists responded in different ways. Terry Smith examines the response during the 1970s of the older generation typified by Arthur Boyd and Fred Williams, and the colour painters who were prominent during the 1960s. He looks at the challenge of Conceptual Art and the impact of dissenting politics, on painters. This disruption was matched, paradoxically, by growth in government support, a booming art market, and an expanding educational system. The advent of feminism in the late 1960s in Australia ensured a significant representation of women painters in the following decades. The challenge to women artists working within a patriarchal society and the development of major young painters such as Susan Norrie and Jenny Watson is examined. The vibrancy and symbolic imagery of recent Aboriginal painting has created enormous interest and excitement both locally and internationally. The role of painting in traditional Aboriginal communities as well as the remarkable emergence of art by Aborigines living in the major cities, is discussed in detail. During the 1980s postmodern theories were prominent in both painting and art writing. Australian artists such as Imants Tillers and Juan Davila evolved a unique form of Post-Conceptual painting in which questions of meaning and identity were explored in new ways. The final chapter concludes with a survey of the