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'If we in London know more about Australian Aboriginal art than we did a few years ago, then it's probably due to the efforts of Rebecca Hossack.' (Tim Hilton, Guardian, 1991)
One of Rebecca Hossack's principal motives in setting up her art gallery in 1988, was to introduce a British audience to the riches of Australian Aboriginal art. The Melbourne-born Hossack had been awed and inspired by the emergence of the Aboriginal Desert Painting movement during the 1970s and 80s, and wanted to communicate that knowledge and enthusiasm. Her Central London gallery became the first in Europe to exhibit Aboriginal art.
Over the past thirty-plus years the gallery has mounted annual 'Songlines' seasons of Aboriginal exhibitions in both London and the US. (The name derived from the celebrated novel about Aboriginal culture by Hossack's friend Bruce Chatwin). During that time Hossack has worked closely with all the leading Aboriginal communities: Papunya, Yuendumu, Lajamanu, Balgo Hills, Ampilatwatja, Spinifex, Ngukurr, Yirrkala, Warmun, Fitzroy Crossing, Maningrida, Tiwi, Elcho Island and Borroloola, as well as with individual artists.
Much important and beautiful work that would never have been seen in the UK but for Hossack's initiative has been shown. From paintings on canvas and bark to prints and drawings, from carvings and sculptures to textiles and basket-works, something of the great variety of Aboriginal art has been made clear.
There have been ground-breaking solo shows by many of Australia's leading Aboriginal artists including Clifford Possum, Emily Kame Kngwarrey (1910-1999), Robert Campbell Jr. (1944-1993), Jimmy Pike (1940-2002), Owen Yalandja, Lloyd Kwilla, and Janice Murray.
Many of the artists have come over to London for their exhibitions, staying with Hossack and developing enduring ties of friendship and connection. In 1990, Hossack memorably took Clifford Possum to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen. He presented Her Majesty with one of his paintings. Eight years later she arranged for Jimmy Pike and his wife Pat Lowe to make a similar visit. She took the artists of Fitzroy Crossing to see Captain Cook's birthplace, and the Spinifex painters to visit Brixton.
Hossack is an acknowledged expert in the field. She writes regularly on Aboriginal art in the UK press, and has also contributed entries on the subject to both the Macmillan Dictionary of Art (1996) and the Oxford History of Western Art (2000). She lectures extensively, both in the UK and abroad, for the Arts Society (formerly NADFAS). Between 1994 and 1998, she served as Cultural Attaché at the Australian High Commission in London, a role that allowed her to promote Aboriginal art even more broadly across the UK. And in 2008 she appeared on the BBC TV programme, Beat the Bank, extolling the virtues - and value - of Aboriginal painting.
Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery works closely with public galleries and institutions to promote Aboriginal art, arranging exhibitions in public spaces, and making sales of significant works to - amongst others - the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, and the De Young Museum in San Francisco.
Rebecca Hossack also assists both private and corporate collectors with acquisitions and curation.
The gallery holds a wide range of Aboriginal stock, including many rare and important pieces. Much (though not all) of it is viewable on this website. For further information - or to make an inquiry - contact info@rebeccahossack.com.
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Aboriginal Communities
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Ampilatwatja
The remote deserty community of Ampilatwatja, 200 miles north east of Alice Springs, is home to some 500 people, almost all from the Alyawarr language group. Although deeply connected to... -
Balgo Hills
Balgo Hills, or Wirramanu, is a remote community in the north of Western Australia, on the fringes of the Tanami and Great Sandy Deserts. Founded by Catholic Missionaries in the... -
Borroloola
Borroloola is a remote rural community on the McArthur River in the North Territory, on the coastal plain between the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Barklay Tablelands. The local art... -
Elcho Island
Elcho Island is situated just off the coast of Arnhem Land. It is the ancestral home of several different language groups, most connected with the Yolngu people of the mainland.... -
Fitzroy Crossing
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Haasts Bluff
The rocky outcrop of Haasts Bluff is located amongst the mountain ranges of the Central Desert, some 140 miles north west of Alice Springs. Established as a Lutheran settlement in... -
Injalak
Injalak is an important and innovative art centre at Gunbalanya in West Arnhem Land. Although it had a noted bark-painting tradition dating back to the early 1950s, the art movement... -
Kimberley
The landscape of the Kimberley region of north-west Australia finds vivid expression in the art of its indigenous peoples. It is a land of dramatic rock forms and stretches of... -
Lajamanu
The remote community of Lajamanu on the edge of the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory was initially wary of the Desert Painting movement. The community elders at first felt... -
Maningrida
Maningrida, on the coast of Arnhem Land, is one of the principal bark-painting centres of aboriginal Australia. It owes its origins as a settlement to the trade in woven pandanus... -
Ngukurr
Ngukurr is a small but vital community, situated on the Roper River, in the wetlands of south-eastern Arnhem Land. Although it evolved from Roper River Mission (established 1908) it has... -
Papunya
The desert community of Papunya, 150 miles northwest of Alice Springs, holds a special place in the story of Australian Aboriginal Art. It was here that the Desert Painting movement... -
Peppimenarti
For five months of the year – during the Wet Season - the Peppimenarti aboriginal community is cut off from the wider world of the Northern Territory, accessible only by... -
Spinifex
The Pitjantjatjara peoples of the remote community at Tjuntjuntjara, in the Great Victoria Desert, 400 miles east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, are known as the Spinifex People. They have... -
Tiwi
The Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands, just off Australia’s north coast, have a distinct visual culture. Their rich tradition of ceremonial art – of body painting, dance, and... -
Torres Strait Islands
The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of some 270 islands off the northernmost tip of Queensland, set between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Over millennia of interaction with different... -
Utopia
The aboriginal community of Utopia lies in the Western Desert, north east of Alice Springs. It was home to the great aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1919 – 1996), who... -
Yirrkala
The Yolngu community of Yirrkala in east Arnhem Land, in the North Territory, is one of the great centres of Australian aboriginal culture. It has during the past seventy years... -
Yuendumu
The community of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory, almost two hundred miles north west of Alice Springs, is a significant centre for Warlpiri people, albeit from several different language groups....
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