Out of Australia

The British Museum has a small print room, wait up on the third floor. You have to know where you are going or you would get distracted on the way up. I was there to see the Out of Australia - prints and drawings from Sydney Nolan to Rover Thomas.

Previously, the rains in London at 'flooded' out the museum with tourists and I could not get in. So I was determined to go. It proved well worth while and I wish I had gone sooner especially as there were connecting events that I had missed.

There was a wide range of work starting with the Angry Penguins through to the present including aboriginal prints. I was able to see some of Fred Williams work, whose work I knew from one or two paintings. These images were just as impressive, impressionist in their view of the landscape. The marks were stripped back to just squiggles, yet shimmering in the overall image is a landscape, muted colours might indicate where it is geographical.

As with a lot of Australian art, the styles and themes have taken time to travel. The cubism and surrealism of Albert Tucker. Yet, these artists do not slavish copy what has emerged from Europe or later the States, but used it as references to show their own Australian landscapes in this new style.

Running along side this exhibition was another called Basket and Belonging. Looking at aboriginal use of traditional skills of basket waving and how it relates to the culture of these people.