Frist Center Presents "Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection"

NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 2, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Frist Center for the Visual Arts presents Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection, an exhibition that explores the flourishing of indigenous Australian painting and sculpture that has occurred since the 1970s. On view in the Upper-Level Galleries from June 23 through October 15, 2017, the exhibition celebrates the artistic traditions of the oldest continuous culture on earth. Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection is organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Seattle Art Museum.

For millennia, the indigenous peoples of Australia have painted on bodies, rocks and the ground as part of ceremonies. In recent decades, they have also been creating more portable, less ephemeral art on a variety of media to be shared with people outside their communities as a way of gaining recognition and respect for their laws and sacred beliefs. "The title of this exhibition, Ancestral Modern, refers to indigenous Australians' reverence for their ancestors and their concept of time as an overlapping past, present, and future unity," says Frist Center Curator Trinita Kennedy. "The title also relates to the fact that the works on view were all made within the last fifty years, yet are part of an artistic practice that dates back at least fifty thousand years."

Ancestral Modern comprises fifty artworks: paintings on bark strips, hollow logs, and canvases, plus a small selection of sculptures made of grass, stoneware, and wood. The works are infused with an intense respect for nature. Common subjects include emus, kangaroos, and other animals unique to Australia, and traditional Aboriginal dietary staples, such as bush plums and desert raisins. Much of Australia is arid, and the precious waterholes around which life revolves are another recurring theme.

In the late 1960s, decades of grassroots activism in Australia culminated in political changes that brought increased power and visibility to Aboriginal peoples. "The early 1970s marked the start of an artistic renaissance, 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 culture with the wider world," says Kennedy.

Some of the artists featured in the exhibition are still living, and most grew up in indigenous communities with vibrant art centers that provide studio space, materials, and galleries for exhibiting and selling their work.

Ancestral Modern introduces a distinctive visual language in which graphic symbols and colors create multilayered meanings. The paintings and sculptures contain a wealth of cultural, ecological, and ritual information. Works by Rover Thomas and Emily Kam Kngwarray reveal profound knowledge of their natural surroundings and geography. "Increasingly Australian Aboriginal artists find themselves confronting environmental issues in their work, too" says Kennedy. "The sculptures of Yvonne Koolmatrie, for instance, demonstrate how intensive agricultural and pastoral activity have degraded Australia's Murray River."

Ancestral Modern is drawn entirely from the Kaplan & Levi Collection, built by husband and wife Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi over many years of travel and research in Australia. The Seattle-based couple made their first joint visit to Sydney in 1991 and now travel there annually to buy works directly from artists or their communities with the aim of assembling a museum-quality collection of Aboriginal art. Today, they possess one of the finest collections of its kind in the United States and raise awareness and appreciation of Australian Aboriginal art by sharing artworks with the public through exhibitions and donations to museums. All the works in the exhibition have either been given by the couple to the Seattle Art Museum or are promised gifts.

Exhibition Credit

This exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Seattle Art Museum. It was made possible by the generosity of Mrs. Donald M. Cox, the Wolfensohn Family Foundation, and an anonymous donor.

Public Programs

Friday, June 23                                                            
Curator and Collector Conversation: Ancestral Modern Presented by Pam McClusky, curator of African and Oceanic art, Seattle Art Museum, and Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi, collectors of the Australian Aboriginal art on view in the exhibition
Noon
Frist Center Auditorium
Free

Curator Pam McClusky will introduce the artists and their subjects of Ancestral Modern, which range from immense deserts and shimmering billabongs (oxbow lakes) to underground crops. Then listen to the insights of Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi, who focused on collecting Australian Aboriginal art in the early 1990s and have enhanced the recognition of this artistic movement in the United States on a national level.

Sponsor Acknowledgment

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts gratefully acknowledges the support of our Picasso Circle members as exhibition patrons.

This exhibition is supported in part by the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Connect with us!  #AncestralModernFCVA

About the American Federation of Arts
The American Federation of Arts is the leader in traveling exhibitions internationally. A nonprofit organization founded in 1909, the AFA is dedicated to enriching the public's experience and understanding of the visual arts through organizing and touring art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishing exhibition catalogues featuring important scholarly research, and developing educational programs. For more information visit www.amfedarts.org

About the Frist Center
Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art exhibition center dedicated to presenting and originating high-quality exhibitions with related educational programs and community outreach activities. Located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., the Frist Center offers the finest visual art from local, regional, national, and international sources in exhibitions that inspire people through art to look at their world in new ways. Additional information is available by calling 615.244.3340 or by visiting fristcenter.org.

SOURCE Frist Center for the Visual Arts