Aboriginal Art - Why Buy It?

Aboriginal art is also known as Indigenous Australian art, or dot painting, and is a type of colorful painting and drawing created by the indigenous people of Australia. It is one of the oldest ongoing forms of artwork in the world. The oldest recorded being the famous rock carvings which date as far back as around 30,000 years ago.

This type of unique painting stems from Aboriginal tradition which goes back thousands of years. Aboriginal Art is a very unique, if not a completely individual type of art work. Each painting, stone sculpture, or wood carving depicts a feel of ancient, traditional life and culture yet still retains a certain style that appeals to the modern taste.

Why Buy It?

Indigenous artwork is very highly rated by collectors and investors alike. Older paintings by some of the more famous painters can easily fetch upwards of $100,000 and more at auction. All artwork is valuable, but more and more, especially over the last twenty years or so, Aboriginal Art has clawed its way to the forefront beating off even the more traditional and better known classical artworks from Europe. In fact, as an investment, reports indicate that good quality Aboriginal dot paintings can outstrip most other types of art which is absolutely amazing when you think that pre 1980 you could pick these paintings up for just a few pennies.

Who's Who in Aboriginal Artists?

So if you are looking for quality and want to start collecting the very best, which artists should you go for? Should you go for the older, more established artist or plump for a new and exciting up and coming artists and hope that their work pays dividends in future?

You might think that the prices of Aboriginal paintings are set by the date in which they were created. This isn't always the case as many paintings from more recent times can still sell for quite a large amount depending on the artist. Size also counts! A good big one beats a good small one every time.

Bearing in mind that traditionally it was mostly a male dominated market, the older artists to watch out for are people like Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Rover Thomas, William McLintock Onus and even the unfortunately named Gordon Bennett. As for female artists, they started to come into reckoning more recently and the leading ones to look for would be people such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Minnie Pwerle, Gloria Petyarre and Abie Loye.