In Praise Of Australian Indigenous Art – ‘The Oldest Culture In The World’

Steve Martin was astonished the first time he walked into a room full of Australian Aboriginal art. “It was something I had never seen before,” says the actor and writer. “And I’ve been collecting art for 50 years.”

The line-based works, by Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, a painter from Australia’s desert interior, were rendered in rich yellows and ochres. The canvases seemed to undulate. Enchanted, Martin left the Lower East Side gallery with a painting. He took it back to the apartment on Central Park West that he shares with his wife, Anne Stringfield, and set about finding a place for it among their Morandis and Hockneys. “I’ve been hooked ever since,” he says six years later….

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