Rover Thomas

Rover Thomas Joolama (c. 1926 – 11 April 1998) was an Indigenous Australian artist. He was born at Gunawaggi in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. At the age of ten Rover and his family moved to the Kimberley where, as was usual at the time, he began work as a stockman. Later in his life Thomas lived at Turkey Creek where he and his friend Paddy Tjamati broke away from the tradition of producing tribal art on canvas and instead painted landscapes on dismembered tea chests.

Thomas was awarded the John McCaughey Prize in 1990 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and the following year he represented Australia at the Venice Biennale, with Trevor Nickolls. He was the subject of the important solo exhibition "Roads Cross: The Paintings of Rover Thomas", National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in 1994.

Thomas and Emily Kame Kngwarreye were amongst the most successful Australian artists in the national and global art markets.

Rover Thomas is one of the two Aboriginal Australians to exhibit in the Venice Biennale (1990)

ee also

Australian aboriginal art

List of massacres of indigenous Australians

References

*McAlpine, Lord Alistair (2002). "Adventures of a Collector". Allen and Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-786-6
*Van Den Bosch, Annette (2005). "Australian Art World: Aesthetics in a Global Market". Allen and Unwin. ISBN 1-74114-455-8http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/archives_2004/rover_thomas

External links

* [http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ed/kits/rover_thomas Rover Thomas Education Kit]
* [http://www.aboriginalartdirectory.com/tags/rover%20thomas Rover Thomas at Aboriginal Art Directory]