The Australian Broadcasting Company in Perth is excited about the success of Aboriginal art in China. Gary Proctor organized a show that started in Shanghai and is now touring the country where it has been seen by more than 100,000 Chinese:
“The aim was to make a virtual bombing run of big museums in China, offering the finest Warburton works in a large selection,” says Proctor jokingly. “We started with Shanghai, then Beijing’s premier contemporary art museum came on board. Then several second-tier cities came forward, and we were off.”
‘Our Land- Our Body’ has been so popular that Xi’An Art Museum – which is currently hosting the exhibition – has offered to further tour the show to six satellite cities in 2013. […]
Under an explicit community order to keep culture safe, the Warburton Arts Centre has retained some of the best works by local artists over the past twenty years, rather than selling them.
It means that Warburton’s collection, the largest of its kind in Australia, now contains 760 paintings, all linked to a meticulous data base detailing family trees and site locations.
For ‘Our Land- Our Body’, 65 canvasses were selected to tour; they are displayed alongside 6, 500 photographs taken mainly by Aboriginal children and a 24-channel digital audio-visual show. “It’s the largest Australian art exhibition ever to go around China,” says Proctor proudly. “It’s massive.”
From Warburton to China: The Aboriginal art exhibition taking China by storm (ABC)
