Paper short abstract:

The qualities of colours lend themselves to group formation as socially recognised colour palettes. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork on Australian Indigenous art, I consider the implications of socially recognised palettes giving way to individualised palettes in works made for the market.

Paper long abstract:

The qualities of colours lend themselves to group formation. I will argue that these can be considered as 'meta categories'. Such meta categories are socially recognised colour groupings which play expressive rather than linguistic cultural roles. A meta category does not require a name to exist but I will call such groups of colours 'palettes' after the European painter's painterly equipment.

In this paper I will first briefly explore how 'colour' in the singular is a culturally constructed category. Next I will draw on my own ethnographic fieldwork on Australian Indigenous cultural products created by people living in the Western desert region. I will discuss examples of local palettes as meta categories. Socially recognised palettes are giving way to individualised palettes in art works. The point of first sale for such work frequently defines its palette and this has epistemological implications for the artists. I will discuss the development these local and individual palettes over time from the mid twentieth century to the present through some case studies which will include some of the following; Hermannsburg pottery and watercolours; Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara art production; the Utopia artists; Papunya Tula.

Finally, I will compare these palettes with contemporary non indigenous artists who are defined by their colour work - such as Katerina Groz - to emphasise how culturally specific palette meta categories are.