Chazen Calendar December 2017–January 2018 | Page 3

Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal
Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection
January 26–April 22, 2018 | Pleasant T. Rowland Galleries
Ancestral Modern’s approximately fifty artworks include paintings
on bark strips, hollow logs, and canvases, and a selection of
sculptures. In many cases, artists have translated motifs from
traditional art forms, such as rock and body painting, to media
that can be more easily shared with viewers around the world.
Most of the works in this exhibition represent subjects related
to the Dreaming, the super temporal realm of the ancestors.
Knowledge of particular Dreamings may be accessible only to
certain individuals, kinship groups, or peoples; artists often adapt
or encode existing symbols and motifs to arrive at representations
that are appropriate for sharing with outside audiences.
This exhibition introduces audiences to indigenous Australian
painting and sculpture that has blossomed since the 1970s. In
the late 1960s, decades of grassroots activism brought increased
power and visibility to Aboriginal peoples. The years that followed
marked the start of an artistic renaissance in the world’s oldest
continuous artistic tradition, fueled both by the end of government
policies that demanded assimilation into white society and by the
growing desire of Aboriginal artists to share their ancient culture
with the wider world. The exhibition is organized by the American
Federation of Arts and the Seattle Art Museum, and was made
possible by the generosity of Mrs. Donald M. Cox, the Wolfensohn
Family Foundation, and an anonymous donor, with support for the
Chazen exhibition from the Mildred L. Stolberg Fund.
Tommy Mitchell (Ngaanyatjarra people, Warakurna, Southwestern Deserts, Western Australia, 1943–2013),
Walu, 2008, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 40 x 60 in., promised gift of Margaret Levi and Robert
Kaplan to the Seattle Art Museum, © Tommy Mitchell, courtesy American Federation of Arts.