Literature in our Collection
(A-L)

Genocchio, Benjamin: Dollar Dreaming: Inside the Aboriginal Art World, Hardie Grant Books, Prahran 2008, ISBN 9781740666091

Table of Contents        ¦         Cover Text        ¦         Book Review

Table of Contents

Prologue: From the desert profits come -1-

An art market on steroids -9-

Gateway to the spirit country -27-

From humble beginnings -37-

The birth of modern Aboriginal art -57-

Without the story the painting is nothing -85-

The market and the makers -99-

The ancient and the modern -117-

When two worlds collide -135-

The most coveted art in Arnhem Land -151-

Black art for white people -165-

Fakes, frauds and scandals -187-

Paying homage to the Dreaming -199-

Epilogue: Speculation or adulation? -213-

Acknowledgements -220-

Notes -222-

Photography credits -227-

Index -228-

Cover Text

"Dollar Dreaming: Inside the Aboriginal Art world" explores how Aboriginal art has become the newly minted coin in the international art market. In pursuit of the story, art critic Benjamin Genocchio travels to interview the very people living through this extraordinary period of evolution – artists, dealers, curators, collectors and auction house staff – to convey through their words and experiences how the art form, and the international market for Aboriginal art, has come to life. His journey takes us through the heart of Australia to some of the most remote outback communities, then across the globe to the art auction houses of New York. Revealed is how the world’s oldest continuous art has evolved and attracted international attention. We see how the transformation of Aboriginal artists into art market bestsellers has happened despite the present-day socioeconomic status of traditional Aboriginal people who for the most part continue to live in miserable conditions, poor, in remote communities and excluded from the wider white society. Aboriginal artists such as Clifford Possum, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Johnny Warangkula and Rover Thomas are profiled. "Dollar Dreaming" is an authoritative and engaging account of the Aboriginal art world today by one of Australia’s most successful art critics.