Yirrkala school

 Yirrkala was a Methodist mission in the east part of Arnhem Land and now is a bark painting centre. In fact the so called "bark petition" to Australian parliament originated here. Also here are the "Yirrkala church panels", famous for having been chucked out from the church, for which they were painted a few years earlier. They can be seen there now, but one has to travel all the way to Yirrkala to see them.

The paintings are full of little strokes, but unlike the Oenpelli school, the Yirrkala artists fill the background with strokes and leave the figures in one colour, usually black.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Oenpelli school

 Oenpelli in a centre of bark painting in the west of Arnhem Land. It used to be an Anglican mission and the missionaries bought pictures from native artists and sold them in the cities on the coast. There was a problem how to pay for the pictures, it was decided it depended on time spent painting each picture. I guess the amount of little strokes in each picture has something to do with this decision. The paintings seem similar to those from the eastern part of Arnhem Land, which also have plenty of little strokes, but there is one difference: in Oenpelli the figures are full of strokes, whereas the background is of one colour, whereas in the East the background is full of strokes, while the figures are left in one colour.

The natives of Arnhem Land are considered artists because in Europe cubism and similar currants became popular. Even Picasso, seeing one of the bark pictre from Oenpelli, said that he would like to paint like this. If Picasso himself sais that, they must be artists.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Mountford expedition

 After the last war, in 1948, Australia decided to learn something about the country they fought such a fierce war about. An expedition was sent to Arnhem Land, thus far hardly known part of the country. It was led by Charles Mountford. During the expedition paintings on bark were collected. Those paintings show what Aborignal bark paintings were like before trade in them started.

Later missionaries were bying bark paintings and reselling then in the cities of the coast. They paid the artists according to the time spent on painting. So it paid (literally) to spend as much time as possible painting it. Which is why later paintings have a multitude of little strokes, but the ones gathered earlier seem to be much simpler.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

 In the settlement of Utopia native children went to school, taken there by their mums or grannies. While the children were at school, their mums (or grannies) waited for them under a tree in front of the school. So it was decided to give those mums something to do. Paint for example. The mums painted, exhibitions were made, they (the exhibitions) toured coastal cities and were immediate success.

One of those ladies was Emily Kame Kngwarreye. She started painting in her seventies, before she only painted designs on bodies. Nevertheless she became the best know Australian artist of them all. She even exhibited at the Biennale in Venice.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Papunya Tula

 Papunya is the place where all the nomads from the inhospitable western desert of Australia were resettled. In the 1950s the British wanted to try out their atomic bomb in the western desert, they didn't want to drop it on somebody's head, so when it was discovered that some people lived there, they were restettled. In Papunya it was discovered that these people were born artists. So far their medium was coloured sands with which the earth was prepared for a corroboree, but in 1970s some of them started painting on boards and canvasses. They formed a school which was called Papunya Tula. They became so popular that in time they sold their work for thousands of dollars. Which meant prosperity for the tribe, because any money was divided among relatives.

Of course this could happen because at the time in Europe abstract paintings were considered art. A mere 100 years earlier none of those natives would be considered an artist. 

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

School of Hermannsburg

 A mission of Hermannsburg lies in the middle of Australia. An inhospitable place, but at the same time very pretty. Which is why when a painter Rex Butterbee arrived there, he painted landscapes. He even had an exhibition in the very Hermannsburg where he painted. The Aborigines who lived in the mission could see it. One of the Aborigines showed more than a passing interest. In fact he asked Rex Batterbee whether he could teach him how to paint similar landscapes. Butterbee agreed and it turned out that his disciple, Albert Namatjira, became more famous than the teacher (though I guess this was probably because Alber Namatjira was an Aborigine, unlike Rex Butterbee). He became famous, so his pictures became sought after, so he earned quite a few bob. So he taught his children how to paint similar landscapes, thus School of Hermannsburg was formed.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it: