Aboriginal Art Timeline

The landscape paintings described in the source were first created in 1936, beginning an influential body of Aboriginal watercolour work.

The success of the 1938 exhibitions established the artist described in the source as the first Indigenous Australian watercolourist and the first to successfully exhibit and sell work to the non-Indigenous community.

The landscape paintings were exhibited in Australian cities in 1938 and were immediately successful with audiences.

Margaret Lawrie published Myths and Legends of the Torres Strait in 1970 and Tales from the Torres Strait in 1972, reviving stories that had nearly been forgotten and strongly influencing Torres Strait Island artists.

In 1971–1972, art teacher Geoffrey Bardon encouraged Aboriginal people at Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs, to put their Dreamings onto canvas, helping initiate the Western Desert art movement.

The Aboriginal Memorial was unveiled at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra in 1988. It consists of 200 hollow log coffins similar to those used in mortuary ceremonies in Arnhem Land.

Image source: Aboriginal Memorial

During the 1990s, younger Torres Strait Island artists, including Dennis Nona, translated traditional skills into portable forms such as printmaking, linocut and etching, as well as larger bronze sculptures.

Dennis Nona, born in 1973, became an award-winning figure among the younger Torres Strait Island artists who developed contemporary printmaking and sculptural practices in the 1990s.

Billy Missi became known for decorated black-and-white linocuts depicting local vegetation and ecosystems, contributing to the modern Torres Strait Island art movement.

Alick Tipoti emerged among the outstanding Torres Strait Island artists associated with the translation of traditional skills into contemporary media.

The Rebecca Hossack gallery opened in London in 1988 and has been credited with almost single-handedly introducing Australian Indigenous art to Britain and Europe.

Aboriginal art sales boomed between 1994 and 1997, increasing the movement's commercial visibility while also creating opportunities for exploitative dealers.

The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia opened in its current location in 1999. It exhibits solely Australian Aboriginal art and regularly mounts exhibitions.

The Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, France, opened in 2006 and included an Oceania collection containing Australian Indigenous art.

The Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Utrecht, Netherlands, was dedicated to contemporary Australian Aboriginal art before closing in 2017.

Following concerns about unethical practices in the Indigenous art sector, the Australian Senate initiated an inquiry in August 2006. Its report was published in 2007.

Koonalda Cave on South Australia's Nullarbor Plain was heritage-listed in 2014 because of the rarity of its approximately 30,000-year-old artwork.

Image source: Koonalda Cave

In 2022, unique 30,000-year-old artwork at Koonalda Cave was vandalised in an event reported around the world, leaving much of the artwork unrecoverable.

In 2023, three large panels of rock art were removed from Murujuga in Western Australia to enable construction of a new fertiliser factory.

Image source: Burrup Peninsula

The ancient Bulgandry Aboriginal art site in New South Wales's Brisbane Water National Park was vandalised twice in late 2023 and early 2024, within a period of only a few months.