Benjamin Genocchio On His Love For Aboriginal Art

Benjamin Genocchio Love For Art – For the unaware, Benjamin Genocchio is an acclaimed art critic with jobs like, writing for the New York Times and being the director of The Armory Show, under his belt. He has authored several non-fiction works and has experience in teaching too. One of his most talked-about published works has been “Dollar Dreaming”. This 2008 book chronicles the corruption behind the 500 million indigenous art market that has unfortunately left the artists themselves in abject poverty. This book shines a light on this less-talked-about topic and puts it among the mainstream art books.

In simplest terms, aboriginal art is the art that has been created by indigenous inhabitants of an area. Since Benjamin Genocchio himself was born in Australia, he has been quite passionate about the aboriginal art scene there. His interest started with the art that was made before 1972. He tried to understand how the market worked back then and it fascinated him enough to keep on researching about it. In this research, he discovered how hauntingly beautiful the untapped world of aboriginal art was. It was colorful, engaging, and almost psychedelic. Most of them were simple maps to tell you where to find food and water. Others were about the survival of the ancestors who travelled across the land in search of knowledge and more. A lot of the aboriginal artwork was also creation stories with deep spiritual implications. Basically, theirs was a world that people like us couldn’t completely comprehend and that’s what made it all the more unique to collectors and critics alike.

Benjamin Genocchio talks more about the aboriginals who created this art in his published works. According to him, a lot of these people were first-contact people, trucked in from remote areas. In fact, many hadn’t even seen Europeans. Eventually, they were rounded up and pushed onto reservations in Australia, much like what happened to the Native Americans in North America. They lived in impoverished circumstances but created art that would move people even to this day. At first, understandably, the art wasn’t for anyone outside their tribe. They were not very welcome to the idea of anyone outside their tribe selling the art that was part of their heritage. But with certain laws in place, their attitude became more accepting and thanks to people like Geoff Bardon, their art began to sell outside their community as well. Soon a market emerged that is valued at $500 million.

Benjamin Genocchio extensive support for the Indigenous Aboriginal Australian art has helped make a lot of people aware of it. Firstly his 2001 major publication on this namely ‘Solitaire’ and then his 2008 one called ‘Dollar Dreaming’ has been pivotal for spreading the knowledge regarding aboriginal art in the masses. Thanks to this, Benjamin Genocchio was awarded a research fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts.

In conclusion, Benjamin Genocchio love for aboriginal art not only set his work apart, but it also gave support to a community that had been underrated in the art world for a long time.

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