Australian Pastoral: The Making of a White Landscape

by Jeanette Hoorn

Mapping the tradition of pastoral painting in Australia, charting its entanglement with the great pastoral settlement of the country, this new interpretation of contact history argues that the twin strategies of friendship and betrayal were used to defeat black sovereignty over the land and that these entered the narrative of the new nation’s artists. Pastoral capitalism became the means by which the country was won, while the ancient frameworks of the pastoral were used to celebrate the pleasures of land ownership and honor the rewards of labor. And in the 20th century, with the emergence of modernism and fascism, the nation was reawakened to the values of rural Australia—in an excess of pastoraphilia. But with the defeat of European fascism the pastoral landscape lost its currency and in its place came a new pastoral landscape in the art of the great black painters of the outback.

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

Reviews

[Claire Miller]

It's what I "unlearned" from my History of Austrlaian art classes that I find most interesting.