Letter, indigenous art
Craig Turner, 25 April 2023
--

There has been coverage in /The Australian/ newspaper about white artists
making changes to indigenous art.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/a-cultural-revolution-needed-for-indigenous-art/news-story/03b6b4d90958da5bb07c1b442eeb98df

A commenter makes an analogy to renaissance artists. It was common for a
proteges to work on canvases. Yet their master would sign their own name.

It's not equivalent. I wrote this letter,

    "The essence of traditional western art is the artist's mastery. We judge
    a work's ambition, the degree to which the artist rose to the challenge of
    its perspective and technique. If it was done by a protege of the signed
    artist, that would be an interesting detail, but only a detail.

    Hinchliffe writes, "The best .. Aboriginal art has been a window through
    which .. the world can glimpse a .. fragment of .. Aboriginal occupation."
    In aboriginal art, the essence of the product is its other-worldliness.
    The outsider comes for the mystique. The key quality is the authenticity
    of the viewer's journey. To deceive the authenticity is to break contract
    with the viewer."