This book traces the history of Australian art from the settlers of Australia, the colonials trying to recreate their image of home in a foreign landscape, to postmodern artists blurring the boundaries between mediums as well as traditional themes. In this new critical survey, Christopher Allen provides a crucial nexus of historical and cultural information particular to the continent, dividing the book into six provocative chapters on Colonization, Settlement, Unsettlement, The Uninhabitable, Escape Routes, and Homeless. Acknowledging the unique social and geographical circumstances of the country, Allen argues that Australian art does indeed have a history of its own: the history of a society uprooted and transplanted, a history of strangeness and transformative beauty. 183 illus., 58 in color