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The Stranger Artist

Life at the Edge of Kimberley Painting
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The Stranger Artist follows the journey of Tony Oliver, a former gallerist who becomes deeply involved with senior Gija artists in the East Kimberley. The narrative captures the formation of the influential Jirrawun Arts collective, highlighting the successes and tragedies experienced by the artists and Oliver himself. Set against Australia's dramatic landscapes, it offers a poignant exploration of culture, creativity, and transformation.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3999
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This biography is suited to readers interested in Australian cultural history, Aboriginal art, and memoirs that explore cross-cultural experiences and artistic communities.

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Winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award 2021 Non-fiction category, The Stranger Artist is a true story of life, loss and friendship that cuts to the heart of one of Australia’s most celebrated art movements.

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Winner of the 2021 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-fiction.

Set amid the striking landscapes of the East Kimberley, The Stranger Artist is an evocative and enthralling account of a remarkable decade in Australia’s internationally acclaimed Aboriginal art movement.

At the end of the twentieth century, one-time gallerist Tony Oliver finds himself deeply immersed within a group of senior Gija artists, among them the soon-to-be-renowned painters Paddy Bedford and Freddie Timms. Their unlikely bonds lead to the formation of the groundbreaking Jirrawun Arts, which quickly becomes one of Australia’s most celebrated and controversial art collectives. As Oliver comes to share not only the artists’ many successes but their tragedies too, his own life’s trajectory will forever be altered.

Quentin Sprague’s The Stranger Artist is an extraordinary contribution to Australia’s cultural history – a sensitive yet unflinching portrait of creative work, of a life between cultures, of both darkness and light.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781743799321

Publisher: Hardie Grant Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 February 2023

Country: Australia

Imprint: Hardie Grant Books

Illustration: b&w images on chapter openers only

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 135.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 305g

Pages: 288

About the Author

Quentin Sprague is a Geelong-based writer who has worked variously as a curator, academic, art coordinator and artist. His essays and criticism have regularly appeared in publications including The Monthly, The Australian, Art & Australia and Discipline, as well as artist monographs and exhibition cataloguesBetween 2007 and 2009 he lived on the Tiwi Islands and in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia, where he worked for Aboriginal arts organisations.


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