| Description |
304 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Contents |
Preface -- Introduction -- 1. The beginnings of colonial art -- Scientific recording and romanticism -- Topographical drawing -- Macquarie and the eighteenth century English tradition -- The "Country House" landsacpe -- The developemtn of romantic sentiment -- Summary -- 2. Early Australian primitives -- 3. Art and gold : -- The artist and his partons before 1851 -- S. T. Gill -- Other artists of the goldfields -- Growth of graphic art -- Sculptors and Pre-Raphaelites -- State patronage -- 4. Comment and criticism in the nineteenth century : -- Creation and criticism -- John Lhotsky -- Criticism of the work of Conrad Martens -- Art and the middle classes -- Mechanics' institues and school of art -- Van Diemen's land lectures of 1848-9 -- Evangelism: Art as a moral agent and commervcial advocate -- Historical painting -- Sentimental genre -- Summary -- 5. Impressionism in Australia : -- Art styles and social pre-conditions -- The influence of the English academics -- The reaction from English tradition -- The Heidelberg school -- The Neo-romantics -- The rise of national sentiment -- Impressionist influence in Sydney -- Later impressionists -- English and Australian impressionsim -- 6. The aftermath of impressionism : -- The "Streeton" landscape and academic impressionism -- George W. Lambers -- Hans Heysen -- Max Meldrum and tonal imprssionism -- 7. Aestheticisim and nationalism in Australian art and criticism : -- The rise of aestheticism -- Bohemia -- Neo-romantic "Poeticism" -- The myth-makers -- Archasim and chauvinism -- 8. The modern movement in Australia : -- Post-impressionist beginnings -- Post-impressionism in Melbourne -- Some painters of the transition -- The second phase of modernism -- Modernism and the contemporary situation -- 9. Surrealism and the neo-surrealist developments : -- War-time defeatism -- Australian painters influenced by surrealism -- The apocalypts -- From surrealism to realism -- 10. Realism in Australian contemporary art : -- The nature of realist art -- William Dobell and Russell Drysdale -- Realist tendencies in the work of other Sydney painters -- Realism and politics -- Realism in Melbourne -- The position of the arts in Australian society -- 11. Where is contemporary art going? -- The crisis in contemporary art -- The reaction from abstraction -- The resurgences of realism -- The flight from reason -- The need for new values -- Bibliography -- Index |
| Summary |
The book evaluates the development of Australian art within its social, political and cultural context, at the same time analysing the overseas influences on individual artists and groups |
| Notes |
First ed.: Sydney : Ure Smith, 1945 |
|
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages 284-287 |
| Subject |
Art, Australian -- History.
|
|
Arts -- Australia.
|
| ISBN |
0195549074 |
|
