Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings

Biography

The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings (AGOD)

Our History

For almost two decades The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings (AGOD), one of the first Aboriginal art galleries established in Melbourne, was located just a stone's throw from Parliament House in the top end of Bourke Street, conveniently opposite Pelligrini's.

After a slow start in the small gallery at 37 Bourke Street with only a couple of hundred paintings collected from Utopia and Alice Springs on a journey of discovery for the owner Hank Ebes, better known for his Antique Print Gallery Ebes-Douwma just down the street at number 51, it soon became evident that more space would be required to do justice to the often sizeable canvasses after a few hundred more were added to the stock. In early 1990 the Gallery moved into their triple fronted three story high premises at 73-77 Bourke Street and flourished until the end of their lease in early 2008.

More than 12,500 paintings from more than 500 artists were commissioned directly from the artists, communities, wholesalers and trusted carpetbaggers through agents and field officers living in Alice Springs and out “bush”. Every single painting selected for the Gallery was judged purely on its quality, provenance and artistic merit and for that reason the Gallery paid $50,000, a then world record price, for a small Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri board painting called “Love Story 1972”, at the first major Sotheby's Aboriginal art auction in June of 1995. In 2007, after failing to find a permanent display in a State Gallery for another equally magnificent Clifford titled "Warlugulong 1977", Sotheby's auctioned the large masterpiece for another world record for an Aboriginal work, at $2.4 million, to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

In 2001 AGOD had again outgrown the space in the city gallery and acquired a 2500 square meter factory/warehouse located 30 min south east of the CBD in Cheltenham. In 1995, Clifford Possum's “Love Story 1972” became one of the more than 300 carefully selected pivotal paintings from the Central and Western Deserts destined to travel the world as the AGOD's touring exhibition, named NANGARA, by Clifford, meaning "a very special place" (www.nangara.com). One of the largest works in the exhibition is by Emily Kame Kngwarreye, "My Country", measuring 15x5 meters and commissioned in 1996, now hangs on one of the feature walls of the "factory" after spending 12 years promoting Aboriginal art in USA, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany and Japan. Emily's first International solo exhibition was held in Amsterdam in 1999 in the magnificent Oude Kerk built in the 13th century.

The story of AGOD did not end with the closure of the City Gallery. The larger and refurbished location in Cheltenham has become the central hub for all of AGOD's projects. From research and publishing, editing and preserving historically important video records and cataloguing more than 50,000 photographs, to local and international sales by appointment and international exhibitions, it is business as usual for the Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings.

In addition to the Nangara collection, the Cheltenham "factory" houses more than 3000 paintings that are for sale (www.aboriginalgalleryofdreamings.com ), all on museum stretchers from Colour Square supplied exclusively over twenty years. Superb works ranging from small and decorative to the top end masterpieces by superstars like Emily, Clifford, Mick Namerari, Rover, Queenie, Kuddtji, Gloria, Barbara Weir, Minnie and her 3 sisters and so on. The works range from the classics of the Bardon era and the early 70's to the most recent paintings by Kuddtji who started painting for AGOD in 1991 and is still going strong.

Our Aboriginal Art Auctions

Due to the large and varied stock holdings of Aboriginal art, AGOD will hold the first of their in-house stock clearance auctions on the 20th November 2011. About 350 carefully selected works will be auctioned on the day commencing at 12.00 noon during 5 sessions of approximately one hour each (about 70 lots) for the first four sessions with the estimated prices of the works increasing in each session with a short break in between. The last (early evening) session starting at 6.30pm will feature about 70 lots from "the best" of the collection. Click here to view the auction catalogue.

Please note that NO COMMISSIONS what so ever will apply to any of the works sold at this first IN-HOUSE wholesale auction. You pay HAMMER PRICE ONLY (including GST)