Conservation of Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings

Abstract

THE Art of the Australian aboriginals is unique in the possibilities it affords for the study of the methods of a living Stone-Age people. With limited materials obtained from their surroundings, using primitive techniques, the Australian aboriginals record their myths, their conception of the creation of the world and the pattern of their daily life in a richly decorative fashion just as their ancestors had done for ages past. In recent years aborigine bark paintings and sculpture have attracted the attention of many private collectors and art museum curators, who have come to realize that not only are these artifacts important anthropological records of a very primitive people, but also creations of undoubted aesthetic