Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection is the largest public collection of Australian Aboriginal art outside Australia. Comprising over 1600 objects including paintings on bark and canvas, sculpture, regalia and ceremonial artifacts, the Kluge-Ruhe Collection demonstrates extraordinary depth and breadth in its representation of regional artistic styles.

The Kluge-Ruhe Collection came to UVa in 1997 through a gift by John W. Kluge, who began collecting Aboriginal art in 1988. Kluge undertook many large commissions with Aboriginal art centers in communities such as Ramingining (1989-91), Oenpelli (1991), Yirrkala (1996), Yuendumu (1996), and Balgo (1996-97). In 1993 Kluge purchased the collection and archives of the late Edward L. Ruhe. An English professor at the University of Kansas, Dr. Ruhe began collecting Aboriginal art when he visited Australia as a Fulbright Scholar in 1965. Over twenty-five years he built a collection of the highest quality, rivaling many museum collections in Australia.

The Study Center of the Kluge-Ruhe Collection supports scholarly research on Aboriginal art and culture. Among the center's resources are hundreds of volumes on Aboriginal art and culture, exhibit catalogues, photographs and audio recordings. The Ruhe archives contain extensive correspondence, original manuscripts and research notes on Aboriginal artists, including an index of over 500 artists from Arnhem Land.

In 1999 the Kluge-Ruhe Collection published Art From the Land: Dialogues with the Kluge-Ruhe Collection of Australian Aboriginal Art, featuring images of over 140 works in the collection and essays by experts in the field of Aboriginal art including Wally Caruana, Francoise Dussart, Howard Morphy, Fred Myers, Luke Taylor and Christine Watson.

 

Boxer Milner Tjampitjin	Emily Kame Kngwarreye	Yirawala