Namatjira, Albert (Elea) (1902–1959)

Abstract

Albert Namatjira was the leading artist of the modern Aboriginal watercolor art movement at the Hermannsburg (Ntaria) Lutheran mission in Central Australia. He was the first Aborigine to be recognized as a professional artist, to make a good living from his art, and gain national acclaim. The turning point in his life occurred in 1934, when two visiting landscape artists, Rex Battarbee and John Gardiner, exhibited paintings of the local scenery at the mission. Already a talented craftsman with a reputation at the mission for his artefacts and poker-worked designs, Namatjira was inspired by the exhibition to learn to paint his totemic landscape of the MacDonnell Ranges of Central Australia in..