ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on new artistic forms which arose in an urban context and were essentially moulded by indigenous, but expatriate intellectuals in arts and politics during the process of decolonisation. Techniques such as drawing, different kinds of print making and metal work, which Georgina Beier introduced into art teaching, were new modes of expression and did not belong to the traditional canon of New Guinean art forms. The influence of traditional drawing on the development of contemporary art styles is particularly manifest in the career of Timothy Akis, the artist with whom outsider art began. Many Melanesian artists work cut off from an international art scene and opportunities for international exchange and orientation toward global art trends are extremely limited. An important example of the transformation of a traditional object into a nationally accepted art icon is the looped bag, the bilum, widely produced on the island of New Guinea.
