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Australian Paintings

Aboriginal people inhabited Australia for thousands of years before Great Britain claimed the eastern half of it in 1770. The colonies formed the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, which is now one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The earliest major works by Australian artists are landscape, and artists throughout Australian art history have continued to refer back to landscape.

Thomas Watling painted landscapes in the 1700s, and Joseph Lycett and John Glover were important 19th century Australian landscape painters. Landscapes incorporating aboriginal people parallel American landscape paintings with Native Americans. Earlier depictions have a noble savage theme; and later images romanticize a disappearing civilization.

The European avant-garde strongly influenced Australian artists beginning in 1939, when the Melbourne Herald organized a show of 200 paintings from France and Britain. Surrealism ascended in popularity following that show, then Expressionism and naïve folk paintings. The Antipodean Group, which sought to defend figurative art as abstraction, became popular in Sydney.

Australia had its first booth in the Venice Biennale in 1954 and color field painting made its way to Australia in the 1960s. Landscape continues to recur as a dominant subject for all the European artistic styles in Australia. Today, Australian artists produce art in the postmodern style that is popular around the globe.


Quick Facts

  • Christie’s is the only one of the two leading auction houses to offer an Australian Art department with sales twice annually
  • Australian artists did not adopt Pop Art
  • Australian artists incorporated German Romantic styles into landscapes in the 1800s. The Heidelberg School, led by Tom Roberts, painted small impressionist landscapes on cigar lids

Recommended Items at Auction

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NIGEL MARSHALL JAPANANGKA, "My Country", Acrylic on linen., 101cm x 150cm
Feb 23, 8:00 PM AEDT
NIGEL MARSHALL JAPANANGKA, "My Country", Acrylic on linen., 101cm x 150cm
by Ozbid Auctions
Est: AUD2,000- AUD3,000
AUD4009 Bids
ELIZA JANE JUGADAI, ''Women's Ceremony'', Acrylic on linen., 102cm x 141cm
Feb 23, 8:00 PM AEDT
ELIZA JANE JUGADAI, ''Women's Ceremony'', Acrylic on linen., 102cm x 141cm
by Ozbid Auctions
Est: AUD2,000- AUD3,000
AUD754 Bids
RIHANNA ANDERSON NUNGALA, "Two Sisters", Acrylic on linen., 80cm x 102cm
Feb 23, 8:00 PM AEDT
RIHANNA ANDERSON NUNGALA, "Two Sisters", Acrylic on linen., 80cm x 102cm
by Ozbid Auctions
Est: AUD800- AUD1,500
AUD251 Bid
KYRA CAMPBELL, "Lightning Dreaming", Acrylic on linen., 101cm x 100cm
Feb 23, 8:00 PM AEDT
KYRA CAMPBELL, "Lightning Dreaming", Acrylic on linen., 101cm x 100cm
by Ozbid Auctions
Est: AUD1,000- AUD2,000
AUD251 Bid
SEBASTIAN WILSON JUPURRURLA, "Men's Business", Acrylic on linen., 100cm x 100cm
Feb 23, 8:00 PM AEDT
SEBASTIAN WILSON JUPURRURLA, "Men's Business", Acrylic on linen., 100cm x 100cm
by Ozbid Auctions
Est: AUD800- AUD1,500
AUD251 Bid
ELIZA JANE JUGADAI, ''Women's Ceremony'', Acrylic on linen., 121cm x 120cm
Feb 23, 8:00 PM AEDT
ELIZA JANE JUGADAI, ''Women's Ceremony'', Acrylic on linen., 121cm x 120cm
by Ozbid Auctions
Est: AUD2,000- AUD3,000
AUD251 Bid
JOANNE KEN, "Seven Sisters Dreaming", Acrylic on linen., 120cm x 179cm
Feb 23, 8:00 PM AEDT
JOANNE KEN, "Seven Sisters Dreaming", Acrylic on linen., 120cm x 179cm
by Ozbid Auctions
Est: AUD3,000- AUD5,000
AUD251 Bid
JOANNE KEN, "Seven Sisters Dreaming", Acrylic on linen., 101cm x 150cm
Feb 23, 8:00 PM AEDT
JOANNE KEN, "Seven Sisters Dreaming", Acrylic on linen., 101cm x 150cm
by Ozbid Auctions
Est: AUD2,000- AUD3,000
AUD251 Bid

Sellers Who Sell Australian Paintings


Ozbid Auctions

Ozbid Auctions