Story: Bridge to the Outback: Sydney Tourists Connect with Australian Hitsory Through Art

A sunny morning last March found me, a native New Yorker, sitting in my hotel in Sydney trying to decide how to spend the day. After much consideration I settled on the Hogarth Galleries, reputed to be one of the best places to see Australian aboriginal art. From my limited experience with aboriginal art (i.e. a decorated mug I’d been given and a few glimpses in magazines and such) I knew I wanted to see more, so off I went.
Before I even reached the gallery I was in for a treat of locale. Someone back home had asked me whether the houses in the King’s Cross area, where the gallery is located, still have terraces, and I now discovered that the answer is an emphatic yes. Just a block off Oxford street, one of the main shopping streets of the city, many Sydneysiders live not in apartment buildings as one might expect, but in often colorful, usually two story houses, looking for all the world like transplants from the American South by way of Victorian England. Some are wood and some are brick, and all have the air of homes with a history to them.
Nestled within this is the Hogarth Gallery itself, where a friendly woman gave me information and a price list (which was rather frightening, but at least one knows the artists are getting decent pay for their work). The current exhibition was by a glass sculpting group from the Queensland/Victoria border area. The gallery was larger than I’d expected, and glass vessels and paintings filled the bright space. Most of the pieces used the dots, lines, simple shapes and colors characteristic of aboriginal art in mesmerizing blends of simple elements that gave rise to intricate work. While touching on natural topics such as animals, times of day and life phases, the work elicited the feelings and emotions related to such events more than merely depicting them.
Upstairs there were small glass tiles with colorful patters, displayed in groups two by four, some of which were amazingly detailed. A large turtle made of tin lids and other discarded material drew attention in the center of the room, while on a coffee table hugged by chairs there were two photo albums filled with pictures of the Aboriginal tribes at work. This, I felt, was a wonderful resources – it was profoundly rewarding to see the tribes people carefully creating the art which I now saw before me, and added another level of connection and clarity to the work. Another room held pieces outside of the current exhibition; paintings, didgeridoos, straw mats, baskets, and dolls of the highest quality, delicately hand made, each containing a morsel of Australian history.
The Hogarth Galleries opened in 1972 and always emphasized aboriginal art, narrowing its scope to this work exclusively in 1980’s. Throughout its long history Hogarth Galleries has served as a valuable portal between remote communities and the Sydney art market, and has held the first exhibitions of several later successful artists and groups.
I emerged from the gallery with the inner peace that follows visual delight and a far deeper understanding of the country I temporarily inhabited. Hobarth Galleries’ dedication to providing a platform for the somewhat underrepresented work of Australian aboriginal artists fills an important need in Sydney’s art scene. The gallery reminds tourists and locals alike that there is far more to Australia than the Western society now in place, a long, complex and noteworthy history, and a meaningful and beautiful artistic tradition. This oasis amid the terrace clad houses of King’s Cross is well worth the visit.

7 Walker Lane, Paddington NSW 2021
Tel: +61 2 9360 6839
Fax: +61 2 9360 7069
Email: info@hogarthgalleries.com