ALBERT NAMATJIRA

Beginning his career in a craft workshop at the Lutheran Mission of Hermannsburg (outside Alice Springs), Namatjira was introduced to water-colour painting. He was tutored by landscape artist Rex Battarbee and accompanied him on painting trips, responding to the medium of water-colour from the mid-1930s.

His works reveal a profound engagement with nature, it's vegetation assuming an anthropomorphic life and the artist capturing the detail and subtlety of the landscape. Namtjira’s vision of the natural world pulses with life, reaffirming his role as custodian of the land.

The impact of his work in the 1940s was wide reaching, attracting academic interest in Aboriginal art and the emergence of an indigenous school of watercolourists. Namatjira’s reputation also ensured that in 1957 he was officially made an Australian citizen, 12 years before other indigenous people.

In 2002 an exhibition at Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs: Seeing the Centre: The Art of Albert Namatjira, celebrated his prominence in Australia’s cultural history. His work is held in the collections of most major public collections in Australia.