In The Netherlands East Indies at the Tropenmuseum, sections of the well-known ethnographic collections from Indonesia are interpreted as colonial collections. As such, these objects and images express a specific culture of colonialism and colonial society in which ethnography, art, applied art and crafts from Europe and Southeast Asia merge. For more than a century, these objects and images have played a dynamic role in creating coherence in the ethnographic collections as a whole. Through this new interpretation of such objects as colonial collections, the contours of the many...

Oceania at the Tropenmuseum is not in the first place a book on art from Oceania, but rather a treatise on the coming into existence and growth of a well-known Oceanic collection, which started at the beginning of the 20th century with the bringing together of the collections of the Colonial Museum in the Dutch provincial town of Haarlem and the ethnographic collection of Artis, the Amsterdam Zoo. The objects were, then and later on, brought together by early explorers, travellers, scientific expeditions, missionaries, Dutch government officials, ethnologists and collectors, most of...

In this collection of candid interviews, 15 of New Zealand's top contemporary artists--including Barry Cleavin, Neil Dawson, Tony de Lautour, Julia Morison, Eion Stevens, and Philip Trusttum, among others--discuss their creative process and the way they work. Previously unpublished photographs of the artists and their studios, as well as more than 60 images of new work, are featured in this sumptuously illustrated book. Art aficionados and students alike will enjoy this open look into the artistic process.

After Dutch expeditions reached New Guinea's Lake Sentani island and Humboldt Bay in the mid-1800s, Western visitors began collecting works by local artists. Ancestors of the Lake is a stunning look at the region's distinctive art, such as its highly stylized wooden sculptures and decoratively and abstractly designed barkcloths. This beautifully illustrated volume brings together many of these important historic pieces for the first time, including the landmark collection of French writer and art dealer Jacques Viot, along with photographs by Paul Wirz. The book also explores how...

New technologies continually arise, offering repeated opportunities to artists in search of the technologically novel. Stephen Jones calls this phenomenon the "rolling new," and in Synthetics he describes how artists in Australia used new technologies in their art, from the early days of digital computing in the 1950s to a landmark exhibition in 1975. Jones looks at not only the artists and the artworks they produced but also at the evolution of computing technologies and video displays as these new forms of media developed into tools that artists could use. He also examines the...

This eagerly awaited publication celebrates the artistic career of one of Australia's most important printmakers of the twentieth century, Jessie Traill.

Embracing the medium of etching in the early 1900s, Jessie Traill forged a radical path for printmaking in Australia through the duality of her vision. Depicting the beauty of the natural environment alongside dynamic images of industry, her lyrical response showed a profound understanding of the dilemma which requires nature to be sacrificed in order for the modern world to progress.

This includes short essays by Roger...