Category talk:Australian artists

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comments

I am curious why it is indicated that this page should list few if any actual pages, but that most should be in subcategories. "Australian artist" seems to me the best description for quite a few of the artists listed here, there being no existing (and no immediately obvious) subcategory to which they might be moved. Examples include Michael Eather (whom I have just added) and Patricia Piccinnini. Both work across a range of media and so are not meaningfully categorised as painters or sculptors. One could consider relocating links for Indigenous artists into the relevant subcategory, however this too could be controversial, as some would critique the distinction (eg are we suggesting Indigenous artists are not Australian artists?). I'm interested in the logic here. hamiltonstone 00:42, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Curiously, there is no category of "Australian Men Artists" to couple with "Australian Women Artists."

Obviously, Australian men received far greater legitimacy and recognition as artists until 1970 or so, and this would skew gender-representation of Australian artists for most of the nation's history... Nevertheless, it seems counterproductive to perpetuate this kind of sexism by marking women conspicuously in this way. Should the category exist? Should the categories represent both sexes? Should less prevalent genders be given categories like this?

It seems to me that gender and sex are not significant attributes for contemporary artists generally. Certainly they would be historically. I believe that it would make more sense if a category included artists' sex or gender if it specifically informed their work (either via their own statements, or via critics and press), otherwise Wikipedia must surely recognise innumerable other rather irrelevant categories of artist.

Far more significant than sex+-gender might be: recognised/celebrated; high-income/low-income; "outsider artists"; even articulate+-didactic artists versus think-what-you-like artists; artists with networks vs artists with little interdependence with others; metropolitan vs rural;...

User Hamiltonstone has also referred to indigenous artists; often being indigenous is significant to the work of an Aboriginal artist, yet, not necessarily. If the category exists for the sake of eugenic or orientalist frameworks, then it will be counterproductive, and again falls subject to justification for its presence without comparable noteworthy groups: Chinese-Australian artists, Indonesian-Australian artist; or even every permutation of Australian ethnicity... Italian, Vietnamese... even other categories ... skater artists (probably quite a few, actually), [remark now entering incoherent zone...] You, Me and Everyone Else (talk) 06:43, 26 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]