Aborigine art

For thousands of years, Aborigines, in Australia, were a nation of nomadic hunters. They made very light instruments such as boomerang and occasional shelters. Living in a small groups and unlimited territory the aborigines formed a whole of communities with own language, traditions and different customs. A aspect of social life was the exchange of goods like ocher, wood and shells. The nomadic life ended with the arrival of British settlers that emblezzed the land. Many years ago there were 750,000 inhabitants with 300 languages now a few thousand; nomadic life is ended but their culture resists through the ceremonies, rites and especially the art. Once considered by the British "no man's land" today, a new law has recognized the right of Aborigine land (right Land Act 1976), which operates in negotiating to the return of land to its rightful owners. The rebirth of Aboriginel art inspired a movement of revaluation of the culture of these people by Australians. Artists such as Emily Kngwarreye use traditional materials such as bark, ocher with acrylic and canvas, narrating the myths of dream age in a modern idiom.
The aborigine people left enormous decorations on the walls and rocky caves; the images represent their life and their religious beliefs. Sometimes animals, now extinct, horses and strange tools, clear reference to the settlers. The paintings are more widespread in the Hawkesbury and Sydney, there are 4,000 drawings often enormous some of which date back to 16,000 years ago.
Some famous paintings:
"Walls of the caves” were the canvases of art when the tribe found a shelter during the rainy season," The Quinkans" in Queensland are thin figures of spirits that emerge from the cracks of the rock, scared people, "the funeral post" is an example of goddesses decorations for Aborigines in commemoration of the death.

Below the Dot art

The art of points reproduced on canvas (dot art) is typically modern, in the eyes of Europeans remind to the abstract expressionism but, really, every paintings have very specific meanings. The ideas expressed in this language are typical of their Aboriginal culture ("Man" "puddle" "kangaroo" etc.), these symbols are highly stylized form of the objects. The new art is the Stencil art associated with the use of spray and the hands.