The National Rock Art Institute would bring together current rock art knowledge from Griffith University, Australian National University, and the University of Western Australia if they were backed by donors, major industry, and government. International rock art studies are covered in the journal Rock Art Research, which is published twice a year. For centuries, artists have been among the most influential people in the world, contributing to the documentation of history while also giving amusement and inspiring masterpieces. The prominent Australian artists, if they were recognized for painting, sculpting, etching, or drawing, have kept the tradition alive by creating renowned works of art that have been admired around the world.

Sidney Nolan:

Nolan (1917-1992) grew up in a rough-and-tumble Melbourne during the Great Depression and went on to become one of Australia‘s most prolific and acclaimed 20th-century artists. Nolan’s colorful Modernist paintings centered on particularly Australian bush stories — his images of Ned Kelly and his gang of bushrangers sealed Kelly’s place in Australian folklore as well as Nolan’s lofty stature in the national art scene.

Grace Cossington Smith:

Grace Cossington Smith (1892-1984) was a genuine Australian artist, trailblazer – her 1915 painting The Sock Knitter is considered Australia’s first Modernist work, leading the country’s response to European Post-Impressionism. Cossington Smith’s brilliantly colourful paintings focused on familiar surroundings: everyday Sydney during the 20th century, including many dazzling portrayals of domestic life.

Brett Whiteley:

The impact of Vincent van Gogh on the paintings of Brett Whiteley (1939-1992) is clear and so is the effect of drugs, alcohol and the Vietnam War – Whiteley’s passionate, abstract style was his signature before he perished to a heroin overdose aged just 53. Today, you can discover more about Whiteley’s life and work at his former studio in Sydney’s Surry Hills, which has been turned into a museum by the Art Gallery of New South Wales during the last two decades.

 Margaret Preston:

Margaret Preston (1875-1963), known as “the natural adversary of the dull,” was a pioneering Australian artist. Preston, who was born in Adelaide and studied in Munich, Paris, and London during the era of European Modernism and French Post-Impressionism, was known for her progressive character as well as her progressive art – she wrote extensively as a cultural commentator, advocating Indigenous and women’s rights before most of her contemporaries.

Albert Namatjira:

The Australian artist Namatjira (1902-1959), an Arrernte man from the MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory, is unquestionably Australia’s most famous Indigenous artist. His Western-style watercolours of the ancient Australian desert were the first to present Aboriginal art to the white community, and Namatjira was the first Indigenous person to be awarded Australian citizenship in 1957, which was long overdue.

Fiona Hall:

Hall (1953-) transforms everyday objects into works of art to examine the relationship between environment and culture — literature and ecology are recurring themes in her work. In the 1990s, Hall’s early focus on painting and photography broadened to include sculpture, installation, moving image, and even garden design, with residencies at all of Australia’s major galleries and representation at the 2015 Venice Biennale.

David Noonan:

The famous Australian artist, Born in Ballarat and now based in London, Noonan (1969-) utilizes images found in books and magazines to produce screen prints on linen, creating narratives out of this eclectic found material. His monochromatic prints channel the golden age of cinema, and can be found exhibited in ‘La La Land’ Los Angeles itself as well as London, Paris and all of Australia’s top galleries.

John Olsen:

John Olsen (1928) a 90-year-old national treasure, is the most recognized living Australian artist. Olsen returned to Australia in the 1960s after spending several years travelling around Europe to paint a series of vivid, dynamic, experimental landscape paintings – a style that has come to define Olsen’s illustrious seven-decade career.