Australia is sending some of its best Aboriginal art to Beijing, says the Sydney Morning Herald, for a cultural exchange that might yield a show of Chinese revolutionary art in Australia some time soon:

The exhibition, Papunya Painting: Out of the Australian Desert , will be the biggest collection of Aboriginal art to show in the Chinese capital. ”They were quite hungry for knowledge about Aboriginal culture,” the curator Michael Pickering said.

The temporary export was initiated by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. China will reciprocate by sending an exhibition of its own. Initial talks between the two institutions may lead to the arrival of a recent exhibition of Chinese revolutionary art.

The Aboriginal collection, made up of 48 artworks and 18 ethnographic objects, tells the story of the Papunya Tula art movement between 1974 and 1981. The movement established Australian indigenous art in the contemporary art world. It created big names such as Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri.

”All the artists in this exhibition have become familiar names in the art world,” Dr Pickering said. ”It was the art movement that stimulated the art industry across Australia.”

Made in Australia: indigenous art takes outback to China (Sydney Morning Herald)