"Since discovering Aboriginal Art for myself, while travelling through Australia in 2006, my goal has been to open the eyes of art lovers and collectors around the world to this most unique and in my eyes the most amazing Art Movement of the 20th Century. Australian First Nation art can stand alongside all other great art movements in the world."
It was almost twenty years ago. I remember it well. After spending a week in the western desert of Australia, visiting ancient sights such as Uluru, Kings Canyon and the Olga’s, sleeping in our swags under the stars, my girlfriend Gabriëlle (now wife) and I returned to Alice Springs for one night before leaving for the coast. It was October 9th 2006, as it turned out a life changing day for me, as, on that day, for the first time, I came eye to eye with an indigenous Aboriginal masterpiece from the Western Desert.
With just an hour to spend before leaving for the airport, Gabriëlle insisted we go into town to buy an Aboriginal painting, having heard that Alice Springs was the center of the indigenous Aboriginal art movement.
Having been in Australia for more than a week we had been bombarded with Aboriginal art everywhere we went, from the airport shops to even the gas stations, and weren’t very impressed. It looked like something ethnic for the tourists. So when looking for art in Alice Springs, we didn’t expect to find much. But gladly we did succeed and found a nice and decorative painting as a souvenir at one of the tourist shops, which we still own today.
We then proceeded on our way to the airport, not expecting anything else, but while walking back we saw a gallery sign on a side street and decided to take one more quick peak. That was when it happened. There in the gallery, on an easel, stood a six by seven foot painting that completely blew me away. Something with such raw power, abstract yet organic, and with such natural beauty, I had never seen anything like it before.
This moment changed our view on art forever and we became enthralled with the movement of Contemporary Aboriginal Art. We realised that apparently there was a top segment of fine art within the Aboriginal art movement, not to be seen in any of the tourist shops, but already represented in all the major museums and collections in Australia and beyond. We then made an important decision on the airplane to change our itinerary and for the next four weeks we travelled throughout Australia and visited as many galleries and museums as possible and in a few short weeks became novice experts in the field. We ended up buying fourteen beautiful artworks, not for the gallery, but for our private collection, including, on the final day, the first painting we had seen in Alice Springs.
Now, eighteen years later, our collection has expanded quite drastically. It fills me with a lot of pride to see what me and my wife have accomplished and collected over the years and I really look forward to expanding the collection with all our passion over the next fifteen.
David Smith