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European Vision and Aboriginal Art: Blindness and Insight in the Work of Bernard Smith

University of Melbourne, sklowish{at}unimelb.edu.au

Presently, Australian art histories do not adequately account for the existence of Aboriginal art. They tend to re-present and accentuate European constructions of difference, otherness and isolation, rather than explore sites of intersection or look for similarities. A radical readjustment of perspective is needed in order to address this imbalance. This article suggests that although Smith’s writing on Aboriginal art does not provide a suitable basis for this revision, his evaluation of European visual culture during the early exploration of the Pacific might form a useful starting point for an art historical reassessment of the relationship between Aboriginal and Australian art.

Key Words: Aboriginal art • Australian art history • criticism • primitivism • revision

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