Lecture by Henry Skerritt: Sex, Spirits and Sorcery

A fascinating lecture by our curator, Henry F. Skerritt. Located in Australia’s tropical north, Arnhem Land has long been one of the epicenters of the modern Aboriginal art movement. The art of the region opens a window onto another world: a world in which ancestral spirits remain a constant presence in the land. These narratives contain all the drama of a Hollywood epic: struggles over life and death, love and lust, all set within the simmering magic of the tropics. Focusing on the world-class holdings of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection this lecture explores the development of the art of Arnhem Land from 1911 to the present.