Chelsea Art Fair

Chelsea Old Town Hall
Kings Road, London SW3

24 - 27 April 2008

Thursday to Saturday: 11am - 7pm, Sunday 11am - 5pm

West-Eleven is offering free unlimited electronic tickets to the Chelsea Art Fair 2008.

To Download your complimentary invitation, please click the link below:

We will be showing a stunning array of Aboriginal Art at this event. It is fair to say that art experts and private collectors worldwide are becoming more and more excited by the unique cultural significance and contemporary appeal of Australian Aboriginal Art. It has even been described by renowned Australian art critic, Robert Hughes, as being "the world's last great art movement".

Though exhibitions in Asia, the US, Germany, Switzerland and Holland have been well received over recent years, the awareness and recent rise of this movement has so far seemingly flown under the radar in the United Kingdom. This may soon change, with the recent opening of the Jacques Chirac commissioned Musee du quai Branly in Paris. The museum sits at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and is dedicated to indigenous art from throughout the world, with a large portion of its façade and architecture dedicated to Australian Aboriginal artists.

Australian Aboriginal art may also lay claim to being the oldest living art tradition in the world, with paintings in rock shelters dating back 20,000 years. Much of this historic art relates to stories of the ‘Dreamtime’ - the Creation Period in Aboriginal belief, when important Ancestral Beings formed the land and created the people, plants and animals. These Ancestral Beings (often depicted in the art in human, animal, plant or combined forms) are said to have taught the Aboriginal people their laws and ceremonies.

This more traditional artistic medium eventually took on a modern form, when, in 1971, a visiting art teacher, Geoffrey Bardon, encouraged senior aboriginal elders to paint their ‘Dreamings’ on canvas, to preserve their traditional stories. These stories had previously been drawn on the desert sand, and were now given a more permanent form. Suddenly, a new art movement was born, soon spreading across Central Australia, and eventually achieving international acclaim.

The most famous of the artists to come from this movement is the late Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, with his legendary Warlugulong painting fetching a staggering AUD$2.4 million at a recent Sotheby’s auction.

Some of the artists that will be on show include Ningura Napurrula, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, George Ward Tjungurrayi, Kuddtji Kngwarreye, Walangkura Napanangka and Gabriella Possum. Now, whilst these names are a mouthful, and may not be immediately familiar to you, they are all internationally established artists, whose works are in increasingly high demand.

Ningura Napurrula, in particular, has recently risen in prominence,as one of few Australian Aboriginal artists selected to have their artwork incorporated into the Musee du quai Branly. Ningura’s depiction of her ancestral homeland adorns the ceiling of an entire floor of the museum, forming one of its main attractions.

You could well find yourself falling in love with the vibrancy, cultural significance and investment potential of Aboriginal Art. The whole movement has only really taken off in the last 10-15 years, so you could say that it’s comparable to being alive during the French renaissance period. The styles and contrasts of colours are so appealing, that these works wouldn’t look out of place in any other contemporary art collection.

The paintings range from being quite small in size to rather large, with the biggest work measuring in at 200cm x 200cm.

All of our artworks are also represented by complete documented and authenticated provenance, which is a must these days.

The works in this collection are certainly vibrant, but how rare and collectable are they likely to be?

"These artists are all the originators." says Robert Noriss, our Australian partner. "They have all had great success with their own particular style of painting or story telling. Because of their success, they now have up-and-coming artists trying to copy their work, but with any art, the greatest appeal always lies with the artists that are first to create, or establish a particular artistic style - whether it be in the use of a brush stroke, or dotting with sticks, or simply the way they interpret their ancestral dreamings and homeland. There is also quite a strict code amongst aboriginal people, where only certain members of families or communities through generations are ‘authorised’, or empowered to tell their ancestors stories. This makes each work even more unique."

It’s hard not to be impressed by the historic evolution and growth of this art movement and the aesthetic appeal of the works that it has produced. Whether they are naturally contemporary in conception, or have been guided that way by art industry people over the years, may be subject to debate.

But it is definitely something that is new and exciting, which may just answer the calls of what many in the local and global contemporary art scene have been crying out for.