Artist: Richard Bell

Compared to all the other artists that we have been looking at over the last 10 weeks, Richard Bell seems to stand out, for the apparent reason, his politics behind his work. His attitude towards the Indigenous arts community is far less contained as he expressed his thoughts through image and type. Even though his messages are not completely his own issues, he uses those issues from earlier days to confront the current society to how the Indigenous communities of Australia were treated.
Back to his early days, Richard was born in 1953 in Charleville, south west Queensland and was a member of the Campfire group of artists based in Brisbane. Emerging from this artist group, Richard began to merge from the traditional Indigenous art style and focus on the ways he could express his feelings through different mediums. The images below are examples of his works and the rich colours on canvas he uses as well as textured and 'gritty' feelings to relate to the text. Not being an artist myself, I would consider his work modern / stylistic and abstract compared to traditional Indigenous art. I think that Richard gives the Aboriginal art world a voice to say that it's not just dot paintings or paintings of the land, confronting the viewer to broaden their perspective of the history and culture of Indigenous Australians.

b.mac