"Albert Namatjira Albert Namatjira (28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959), born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Arrernte-speaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. As a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation. Born and raised at the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission outside Alice Springs, Namatjira showed interest in art from an early age, but it was not until 1934 (aged 32), under the tutelage of Rex Battarbee, that he began to paint seriously. Namatjira's richly detailed, Western art-influenced watercolours of the outback departed significantly from the abstract designs"
"fact that he was held as one of Australia's greatest artists, Namatjira was living in poverty. His plight became a media ""cause célèbre"", resulting in a wave of public outrage. In 1957 the government exempted Namatjira and his wife from the restrictive legislation that applied to Aborigines in the Northern Territory. This entitled them to vote, own land, build a house and buy alcohol. Although Albert and Rubina were legally allowed to drink alcohol, his Aboriginal family and friends were not. The nomadic Arrernte culture expected him to share everything he owned, even after they ceased being nomads. It was"
"in Namatjira's watercolours were destroyed in an arson attack. The trees were in the process of being heritage-listed. Art writer Susan McCulloch called the attack an ""appalling and a tragic act of cultural vandalism"". A number of Albert Namatjira's descendants paint at the ""Iltja Ntjarra - Many Hands"" art centre in Alice Springs. 1st Kingston Sea Scouts, in Tasmania, has an 18ft wooden hulled patrol boat named ""Namatjira"". On 28 July 2017, Google commemorated Namatjira's 115th birthday with a featured Doodle for Australian users, acknowledging his substantial contributions to the art and culture of Australia. Albert Namatjira Albert Namatjira (28"
"years and eventually crystallise around concepts of art, culture and economy as Albert meets painter and crippled war veteran Rex Battarbee, whose biography is juxtaposingly woven into the presentation of Albert's story. As their friendship evolves from a teacher-student relationship to one of equal engagement and artistic exchange, questions are raised regarding the state of contemporary Australian social relations. Act Two relates Albert Namatjira's continued struggle for economic sustenance and his rise to fame as artist in Australia and internationally. The story of achievement and professional recognition is expressed through the infatuation of the White Australian arts world and high"
"a way to strengthen the passing on and sharing of culture and artistic family tradition as begun by Albert Namatjira and his watercolour and landscape painting style. As part of this large-scale, layered, long-term engagement with the Namatjira family and their famous ancestor’s legacy, the project runs painting and digital arts workshops in the isolated Hermannsburg community, organises intergenerational plein-air painting trips on country, works with the local choir and collaborates with family members to raise awareness of Albert’s story. On the one hand, this is done by addressing issues surrounding the copyright of Namatijra’s work; on the other hand,"
"Design) and was awarded 2 (Best New Australian Work, Best Newcomer (Derik Lynch)) Namatjira Project The Namatjira Project is an Australian community cultural development project, launched in 2009, conducted by arts and social change company Big ""h""ART. It is based in the Indigenous (Aboriginal) communities of Hermannsburg (NT) and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Its focus is the life and work of the late Albert Namatjira, an Indigenous watercolour landscape artist. The project undertakes community work and has developed an award-winning touring theatre show, ""Namatjira"", which depicts ""the commercial appropriation of Aboriginal experience"". The ""Namatjira Project"" (2009-)"
"Namatjira (1902–1959) is one of the most famous Australian artists and an Arrernte man. His landscapes inspired the Hermannsburg School of art. The works of Elizabeth Durack are notable for their fusion of Western and indigenous influences. Since the 1970s, indigenous artists have employed the use of acrylic paints – with styles such as that of the Western Desert Art Movement becoming globally renowned 20th-century art movements. The National Gallery of Australia exhibits a great many indigenous art works, including those of the Torres Strait Islands who are known for their traditional sculpture and headgear. By 1788, Indigenous Australians had"
"Namatjira Project The Namatjira Project is an Australian community cultural development project, launched in 2009, conducted by arts and social change company Big ""h""ART. It is based in the Indigenous (Aboriginal) communities of Hermannsburg (NT) and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Its focus is the life and work of the late Albert Namatjira, an Indigenous watercolour landscape artist. The project undertakes community work and has developed an award-winning touring theatre show, ""Namatjira"", which depicts ""the commercial appropriation of Aboriginal experience"". The ""Namatjira Project"" (2009-) is a community cultural development project conducted by arts and social change company"
"rights and buy alcohol. In 1956 his portrait, by William Dargie, became the first of an Aboriginal person to win the Archibald Prize. Namatjira was also awarded the Queen's Coronation Medal in 1953, and was honoured with an Australian postage stamp in 1968. Born at Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission, near Alice Springs in 1902, Namatjira was raised on the Hermannsburg Mission and baptised after his parents' adoption of Christianity. He was born as Elea, but once baptised, they changed his name to Albert. After a western-style upbringing on the mission, at the age of 13 Namatjira returned to the bush for"
"arts metaphor as a frame for this story, a painter creates a portrait in oil of the leading actor while the show is being performed. The two-act play tells the life story of Albert Namatjira in linked, chronological vignettes with interspersed reflections commenting on contemporary Australian discourses. Act One speaks of Namatjira's birth in the central Australian desert and his subsequent upbringing on the Lutheran mission of Hermannsburg (NT), his elopement with his wife Rubina and the struggle to feed his family. Cultural differences between the Aranda and the Christian missionaries are playfully touched upon in scenes of Albert's early"
"natural style. This view has been largely abandoned and Albert Namatjira is hailed as one of the greatest Australian artists and a pioneer for Aboriginal rights. Namatjira's work is on public display in some of Australia's major art galleries, with some noteworthy exceptions. The Art Gallery of New South Wales now displays a number of Namatjira's work, but initially rejected his work. In the words of Hal Missingham, then Director of the gallery: ""We'll consider his work when it comes up to scratch"". A number of biographical films have been made about Namatjira, including the 1947 documentary ""Namatjira the Painter""."
"""Namatjira"", written by Geoff Drummond and included on the politically activist album, ""The Chess Set"" released by Pat Drummond in 2004. In 1968 Namatjira was honoured on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post and again in 1993 with examples of his work. The Namatjira Project was a community cultural development project launched in 2009 that included an award-winning theatre production by Big ""h""ART focusing on Namatjira's life and work. The Northern Territory electoral division of Namatjira, which surrounds Alice Springs, was renamed in 2012 from MacDonnell, in honour of Namatjira. In January 2013, two gum trees that featured prominently"
"his wife — ""Modern Aboriginal Paintings"" (Adelaide, 1971). Survived by his son and daughter, he died on 2 September 1973 in the Old Timers' Home, Alice Springs, and was buried with Methodist forms in the town's cemetery. His work is represented in the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. Rex Battarbee Reginald Ernest Battarbee (16 December 1893 – 2 September 1973) was an Australian artist notable for painting landscapes of Central Australia, and for teaching Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira to paint. Rex Battarbee was born in Warrnambool, Victoria and educated at the local state school"
"Namatjira the Painter Namatjira the Painter is a 1947 documentary about the artist, Albert Namatjira. It deals with his background, his relationship with Rex Battarbee and how he learned to paint. The film was one of the first productions of the Australian National Film Board (later known as Film Australia). Ralph Foster was the first Film Commissioner appointed to the Board. Lee Robinson had joined the Board out of the army and wrote a treatment for the documentary in January 1946. Because no one else was experienced as a director, he was given the job. Robinson received basic advice on"
"Big ""h""ART devised a professional theatre show on Albert’s life in close consultation and collaboration with the family. As theatre critic John McCallum writes, the stage production ""Namatjira"" tells “a story about the commercial appropriation of Aboriginal experience, told in a performance that is a reappropriation of Namatjira's story by his family and descendants, who have worked with Big ""h""ART, and the company's director and writer Scott Rankin, to reclaim it”. In addition to help shape the story told, family members toured with the company throughout Australia as artists and performers, conducting watercolour painting workshops and creating large chalk drawings"
"Namatjira a likely Labor gain. Paech took the seat on a swing of over 29 percent—almost unheard of in Australian politics—amid Labor's landslide victory that year. Electoral division of Namatjira Namatjira is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was created in 2012 when the former division of MacDonnell was renamed after the Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira. Namatjira is an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 351,294 km², and taking in the resort town of Yulara, the remote communities of Hermannsburg, Kintore and Papunya, and part of southern Alice Springs. There were 5,435 electors enrolled in"
"society (including the young Queen Elizabeth) with the persona, cultural background and art of Albert Namatjira and his financial benefits stemming from this elevated profile. This story, however, is counterbalanced with that of racism and exploitation which is presented as endemic to the entire Australian social fabric, be it in the form of taxation without equal rights, his framing as anthropological curiosity in the minds of his admirers or the humbugging by his extended family. Albert Namatjira is presented as caught between two conflicting systems of value which in the play ultimately lead to his demise - he is jailed"
"1956 trip. After being transferred to Alice Springs hospital, Namatjira astonished his mentor Rex Battarbee by presenting him with three landscapes, with a promise of more to come; a promise unrealised. He died soon after of heart disease complicated by pneumonia on 8 August 1959 in Alice Springs. At the time of his death Namatjira had painted a total of around two thousand paintings. His unique style of painting, however, was denounced soon after his death by some critics as being a product of his assimilation into western culture, rather than his own connection to his subject matter or his"
"Electoral division of Namatjira Namatjira is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was created in 2012 when the former division of MacDonnell was renamed after the Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira. Namatjira is an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 351,294 km², and taking in the resort town of Yulara, the remote communities of Hermannsburg, Kintore and Papunya, and part of southern Alice Springs. There were 5,435 electors enrolled in Namatjira as of August 2016. The seat's first member, Alison Anderson, the former Labor-turned-independent-turned-Country Liberal member for MacDonnell, won the seat handily at the 2012 Territory"
"Big ""h""ART in conjunction with the descendants of the late Australian Indigenous watercolour landscape artist Albert Namatjira. Based in the Aboriginal communities of Hermannsburg (NT) and Alice Springs, the project aims to strengthen intergenerational ties, to invigorate and preserve the legacy of Albert Namatjira’s style of painting and to invite the general public to reflect on Namatjira’s story as a prism through which to explore Australia’s past, present and future in terms of intercultural social relations and national reconciliation with Indigenous people. The project is structured around the two pillars of community work and a touring theatre show. To help"
"which he was later to depict in his paintings. Having done a small amount of rough artwork in his youth, Namatjira was introduced to western-style painting through an exhibition by two painters from Melbourne at his mission in 1934. One of these painters, Rex Battarbee, returned to the area in the winter of 1936 to paint the landscape and Namatjira acted as a guide to show him local scenic areas. In return Namatjira was shown how to paint with watercolours, a skill at which he quickly excelled. Namatjira started painting in a unique style. His landscapes normally highlighted both the"
"to the non-indigenous community. Namatjira's style of work was adopted by other indigenous artists in the region beginning with his close male relatives, and they became known as the Hermannsburg School or as the Arrernte Watercolourists. Namatjira died in 1959, and by then a second initiative had also begun. At Ernabella, now Pukatja, South Australia, the use of bright acrylic paints to produce designs for posters and postcards was introduced. This led later to fabric design and batik work, which is still produced at Australia's oldest Indigenous art centre. While the initiatives at Hermannsburg and Ernabella were important antecedents, most"
"""Ngapartji Ngapartji"" project. In this, Elton Wirri, kinship grandson of Albert Namatjira, was a cast member in the namesake theatre show, creating an extensive painting on the backdrop of the set. The reaction of audience members to the name ""Namatjira"" and the potential of the story to engage with contemporary Australian social issues prompted writer Scott Rankin, actor Trevor Jamieson and creative producer Sophia Marinos to research the story further. This brought them into contact with the extended Western Aranda Namatjira family. The project in its form and structure was then instigated with the consent of Namatjira family representatives as"
"For ten years Namatjira continued to paint, his works continuing to sell quickly and his popularity continuing to rise. Queen Elizabeth II became one of his more notable fans and he was awarded the Queen's Coronation Medal in 1953 and met her in Canberra in 1954. Not only did his own art become widely recognized, but a painting of him by William Dargie won the Archibald Prize in 1956. He became popular, critically acclaimed and wealthy. However, he was always glad to return to the outback. Namatjira's artworks were colourful and varied depictions of the Australian landscape. One of his"
"Gallery). Margaret Preston (1875–1963) was among the early non-indigenous painters to incorporate Aboriginal influences in her works. Albert Namatjira (1902–1959) is a famous Australian artist and an Arrernte man. His landscapes inspired the Hermannsburg School of art. The works of Elizabeth Durack are notable for their fusion of Western and indigenous influences. Since the 1970s, indigenous artists have employed the use of acrylic paints - with styles such as the Western Desert Art Movement becoming globally renowned 20th-century art movements. The National Gallery of Australia exhibits a great many indigenous art works, including those of the Torres Strait Islands who"
"decoration by scarring and the making of possum-skin cloaks. However, indigenous Australians also adopted and expanded the use of new techniques including painting on paper and canvas. Early examples include the late nineteenth century drawings by William Barak. In the 1930s, artists Rex Battarbee and John Gardner introduced watercolour painting to Albert Namatjira, an indigenous man at Hermannsberg Mission, south-west of Alice Springs. His landscape paintings, first created in 1936 and exhibited in Australian cities in 1938, were immediately successful, and he became the first indigenous Australian watercolourist as well as the first to successfully exhibit and sell his works"
"stations. He became a skilled stockman, which in recent years we as a nation have begun to recognise the key role Aboriginal people played in the development in the cattle industry in Australia. Kudditji witnessed the success of Albert Namatjira, and experienced the 1967 referendum. Kudditji and his countrymen had their land claim approved in 1979 and throughout the years he has felt the effects of different government policies on Indigenous people of the Northern Territory. Kngwarreye took up painting around 1986, his highly intuitive and gestural method of painting was not welcomed by galleries, and he was encouraged to"
"Daw Park. Returning to Alice Springs, Battarbee was appointed O.B.E. in 1971 for his services to art and Aborigines. He had been attracted to Central Australia by the variety and luminosity of colours to be found in the region. Although he believed that he had a sound sense of colour and that his best paintings would be remembered, he also expressed the view that his discovery of Namatjira would outlive the memory of his own art. Battarbee was a fellow (1937) of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts. he wrote ""Modern Australian Aboriginal Art"" (Sydney, 1951) and — with"
"Care Inc. of Tasmania and the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, among numerous others. In October 2017, Smith made a A$250,000 donation to the Namatjira Legacy Trust as part of a settlement negotiated by him for transfer from commercial interests of all copyright in the works of Albert Namatjira, to the benefit of Namatjira's descendants and the Aboriginal community at large. Namatjira was a leading Aboriginal artist of the 1950s and the first Australian Aboriginal to be granted citizenship. In June 2018, Smith, on behalf of Dick Smith Foods, donated A$1 million to the Country Women's Association after a visit to"
"Arrernte mythology. In the best works by Otto Pareroultja trees were painted as ancestral beings with body-like trunks & arm-like branches. Albert Namatjira began his distinctive style after seeing an exhibition by travelling artists to the mission, Rex Battarbee and John Gardner, in the 1930s. Other artists from the Hermannsburg school include Wenten Rubuntja, Walter Ebatarinja, Otto Pareroultja, and his brothers Ruben and Edwin, not to mention Albert's sons, Enos, Oscar, Ewald, Maurice and Keith and his grandson Gabriel. Other members of the school include the Henoch and Herbert Raberaba brothers. The Hermannsburg School represented a major change of direction"
"on the far eastern tip of Victoria. It is known for its natural beauty and wilderness, its isolation has bred a determination in the town to look after its own. Thursday Island is a laid-back paradise but its isolation can present problems. Locals are rising to the challenge and are carving out a new future The sheep and wheat town of Katanning lays out the welcome mat and shows how it has transformed itself, holding some delightful surprises. Hermannsburg (known as Ntaria in Western Arrarnta language), the birthplace of Albert Namatjira, is nurturing both culture and creativity in its young"
"original talent"" and the modernity of her artistic vision. A wide range of textile art techniques, including dyeing and weaving, is particularly associated with Pukatja, South Australia (formerly known as Ernabella), but in the mid-2000s the community also developed a reputation for fine sgraffito ceramics. Hermannsburg, originally home to Albert Namatjira and the Arrente Watercolourists, is now renowned for its pottery. Amongst urban indigenous artists, more diverse techniques are in use such as silkscreen printing, poster making, photography, television and film. One of the most important contemporary indigenous artists of his generation, Michael Riley worked in film, video, still photography"
"in Sydney. In the mid-twentieth century, the landscape paintings of Albert Namatjira were popular and received national and international acclaim. Since the 1970s, contemporary Indigenous Australian artists have used acrylic paints in styles such as that of the Western Desert Art Movement, which leading critic Robert Hughes saw as ""the last great art movement of the 20th century"". Art is important both culturally and economically to Indigenous society; art critic Sasha Grishin concluded that central Australian Indigenous communities have ""the highest per capita concentrations of artists anywhere in the world"". Contemporary artists whose work has been exhibited internationally such as"