The National Museum of Australia in Canberra presents Arnhem Land barks in an exhibition on view to 20 July 2014.
Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists celebrates the genius of master bark painters who worked on eucalyptus bark from northern Australia.
With over 2000 works of art on bark, the National Museum holds the world’s largest collection of bark paintings.
The Old Masters exhibition draws from the Museum vaults to feature 122 of the most outstanding Arnhem Land works by 40 artists, painted between 1948 and 1988.
The exhibition will feature masters including Yirawala and Narritjin Maymuru, Mawalan Marika and David Malangi who put Aboriginal bark painting firmly on the map of the world of art.
The exhibition will explore the dynasties of Aboriginal bark painters and the strong master-student bonds that epitomise the genre. A number of artists in the exhibition also painted on the rock walls and overhangs that abound in west Arnhem Land and beyond to Kakadu.
More information: http://www.nma.gov.au