Seeing the Inside

Luke Taylor is a Senior Curator at the National Museum of Australia. He has worked for the Australian Federal Government's Review of the Aboriginal Artsa and Crafts Industry, and held a Visiting Research Fellowship at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. In 1995/6 he was a visiting scholar at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan. He has published articles on Australian Aboriginal art and society, and he is co-editor of Marketing Aboriginal Art in the 1990s (Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1990).

• 1. Introduction ; 2. The development of the market for bark paintings in western Arnhem Land ; 3. Kunwinjku social organization and land ownership ; 4. Apprenticeship and the social identity of artists ; 5. Themes and paintings in ceremonies ; 6. Formal components of bark paintings ; 7. Iconic representation ; 8. Transforming figures ; 9. The meaning of x-ray paintings ; 10. Metaphors and socialization ; Conclusion: Innovation and social reproduction ; Appendix: Glossary of Kunwinjku words

Taylor's detailed account of Western Arnhem Land art adds significantly to the work begun by Morphy and Munn concerning one of the most important art-producing regions of the world. ... detailed and well-written study ... interesting analysis of how art is tied to the social fabric of Kunwinjku life.