The Artist is a Thief
By Stephen Gray
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Winner of the Australian/Vogel's Literary Award 2000.
Margaret Thatcher Gandarrwuy is an internationally renowned Aboriginal artist from the remote Mission Hole community in the Northern Territory. Her works command high prices - until a new painting is unveiled. It is discovered slashed, with the words hastily scrawled across it, 'The artist is a thief'. Is the artist a thief? Is she to blame, or is she the victim of somebody else's fraud?
This is a philosophical detective novel with a difference, set in a world where everyone but the 'detective' knows the rules. Jean-Loup Wild, a Melbourne financial consultant sent by ATSIC to Mission Hole, is caught between the art world, with its wealth, fashions, heroes and sophisticated private language, and the Aboriginal community with its poverty, social problems, kinship ties and unchanging traditional law. If Jean-Loup can find the artist he can begin to find the secret of what has been happening at Mission Hole. He can begin, also, to understand how the layers of that mystery lie deep in the bedrock of Australian society.
Stephen Gray
Stephen Gray is a teacher and writer on spiritual subjects and sacramental medicines. He has worked extensively with Tibetan Buddhism, the Native American Church, and with entheogenic medicines. The author of Returning to Sacred World: A Spiritual Toolkit for the Emerging Reality, he is also a conference and workshop organizer, leader, and speaker as well as a part-time photographer and music composer under the artist name Keary. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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Reviews for The Artist is a Thief
8 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Described as a psychological detective novel, this book examines the Aboriginal experience in modern Australia as reflected in the art world. A financial investigator arrives from Melbourne to examine the records of an aboriginal gallery in the aftermath of a scandal involving the country’s foremost indigenous artist. The investigator, seeking to lay to rest various personal ghosts, becomes enmeshed in a tangled web of inter-tribal politics which counterpoint the tensions between black and white Australia. Beautifully written.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Indigenous artist Margaret Thatcher Gandarrwuy is riding a wave of popular success, until her latest work is unveiled. It has been slashed and the words "the artist is a thief" scrawled across the canvas. Sent from Melbourne to investigate the possibility of fraud, financial advisor Jean-Loup Wild quickly discovers the remote (fictional) community of Mission Hole does not take kindly to strangers asking questions.Stephen Gray creates an intriguing premise and sustains the reader's interest well, though the characters are one-dimensional and the story fizzles out somewhat towards the end. A light and entertaining read.