Basil Hall Editions (BHE) was established in 2002. The studio is located in tropical Darwin in the far north of Australia and is available to artists and art centres who wish to collaborate with experienced printers in the production of most forms of printmaking.
In addition to its Indigenous and non-Indigenous clients in cities Australia-wide, BHE has worked in 2007-8 with over 150 artists from 15 remote communities in Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. Boasting one of the most experienced teams currently working with Indigenous artists in Australia, BHE employs up to 5 printers, who regularly run printmaking workshops in Art Centres or host visiting artists in BHE's Darwin studio. The BHE workshop is fully equipped for etching, silkscreen and relief printing.
Basil has been working with Australian and overseas artists for nearly 25 years, as Director of Studio One in Canberra, Northern Editions in Darwin and Basil Hall Editions.
Brief History of Indigenous Printmaking
COLLECTING ABORIGINAL PRINTS
Original prints (etchings, collagraphs, silkscreen prints, lino- and woodcuts and lithographs) have been made by Australian aboriginal artists in collaboration with major printmaking studios since the late 1970's (some individual artists, such as Kevin Gilbert and Bede Tungatalum, had made relief prints on their own in the 60's.)
A BRIEF HISTORY
In the mid-1980's, the Canberra School of Art developed a program, conducted by Theo Tremblay and Jorg Schmeisser, which involved Indigenous artists from Arnhem Land, Tiwi Islands, Central Australia and urban areas and led to the production of a fine body of prints. Artists like Johnny Bulun Bulun, England Banggala, Banduk Marika, Ellen Jose and Naminapu Maymuru and groups from Art Centres, such as Munupi Arts (Melville Island) came to Canberra in that time to learn how to adapt their painting skills to printmaking and have editions published.
In the 1990's, both Canberra's Studio One Printmaking Workshop(Basil Hall and Theo Tremblay) and the Australian Print Workshop (APW: senior printer,Martin King) in Melbourne also started to make prints with communities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia and prominent individual artists such as Judy Watson, Clifford Possum and Arone Meeks.
The burgeoning interest in Indigenous prints culminated in an important conference held at the Northern Territory University in 1993. "Getting into Prints" introduced the fine new printmaking facilities in Darwin and speakers from the arts industry, aboriginal communities and peak bodies were able to discuss and explore the way forward for the "new" medium. The NTU printmaking staff, notably Leon Stainer and Franck Gohier, started to work extensively over the next three years in Kununurra, the Tiwi Islands, Oenpelli in Arnhem Land and Ernabella in Central Australia.
In the mid 1990's, the Australian Art Print Network in Sydney began to collect what is now the largest stock of Indigenous prints in Australia, sourcing their editions from studios and communities all over the country.
By 1996, the NTU program in Darwin was ready to expand. Basil Hall became its first Editioning Manager, and he and a team of printers, including Stainer, Monique Auricchio, Jo Diggens and Simon White (amongst many others) found themselves working with literally hundreds of artists from over 25 communities over the next 6 years. Red Hand (Darwin), run by Gohier and Shaun Poustie, also worked with Indigenous artists and produced an impressive body of silkscreen prints and posters during their years of operation.
Martin King, Anne Virgo and others from the APW in Melbourne continued to visit Tiwi Islands, Fitzroy Crossing (WA) and other communities, making wonderful prints and encouraging the artists they worked with to address cultural issues by visiting collections of artifacts held by museums.
In 2002, Basil Hall departed from Northern Editions, as the NTU printmaking workshop had become known, and founded his own business, Basil Hall Editions (BHE), also in Darwin. The last six years have seen both Northern Editions and BHE expand and a number of fine Australian and International printers pass through both workshops, each contributing new skills and learning about the complex Indigenous culture of the people they work with.
Basil Hall Editions is primarily employed by a number of Indigenous communities in WA, NT, SA and Queensland to conduct printmaking and training workshops and to print editions. BHE is paid a fee, and the prints are then returned to the communities and distributed by the Art Centres. BHE is also commissioned to run workshops and edition prints for publishers, such as the Australian Art Print Network and other individual print promoters. On these occasions, the publishers pay both BHE and the artists and acquire the editions of prints to sell. Occasionally, BHE will collaborate with individual artists - both Indigenous and non-indigenous - and act as publisher itself. The prints on this website are representative of this third, and smallest, category. BHE and the artists own the work and share the proceeds from all sales.
Over 200 editions of prints are produced each year at Basil Hall Editions. Only a small number of these are added to this site. The majority can be found on websites put up by the Art Centres themselves and on the Australian Art Print Network site. See our links page for some of these. Much as we'd love to sell everything to you direct, we're also very happy if you buy the prints we've been associated with making from the AAPN, the communities themselves or Darwin gallery, Nomad Art Productions.
This is by no means a comprehensive history, as this has yet to be written. Clive Barstow's program in WA, for example, is one omission. This brief summary has been included in an attempt to give a general understanding of the history of Indigenous printmaking, but can be adjusted and updated as required. Feel free to contact me regarding glaring errors or inaccuracies. Basil Hall
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Original prints (etchings, collagraphs, silkscreen prints, lino- and woodcuts and lithographs) have been made by Australian aboriginal artists in collaboration with major printmaking studios since the late 1970's (some individual artists, such as Kevin Gilbert and Bede Tungatalum, had made relief prints on their own in the 60's.) 
