111-223 Myths and Legends in Australian Art 1840-1950

Note

Available as 111-323 at 3rd-year level.

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Subject Description

The history of Australian art has been written in terms of the myth of the European settlers only gradually becoming able to 'see' the Australian landscape as it really was. This subject aims to extend ways of looking at and writing about Australian art by a new focus on subject matter and the relationship of art to historical events. Topics considered may include: the way the understanding of the country grew with exploration in the pre-gold rush years; how the indigenous inhabitants were imaged; the development of a colonial culture of public and private patronage; the types and legends developed by artists, such as the digger, the A.I.F. infantryman, the swaggie, the battler, or the bush wife; the self-conscious construction of the artist's self-image; the institutionalisation of the 19th century pastoral landscape trope; the development of new types of imagery in the inter-war period; the growing awareness of new European movements such as Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism; and the art polemics of the 1940s.

Assessment

Written work which may comprise class papers, essays, visual tests or take-home examinations totalling about 5000 words.

Prescribed Texts

• Bonyhady, T, Images in opposition. Oxford 1985.
• Burn, Ian, National Life and Landscape. Bay Books, 1990.