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Albert Namatjira (28 July 1902 - 8 August 1959) was a Western Arrernte-speaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges, west of Alice Springs in Central Australia. His Western-style landscapes, different from traditional Aboriginal art, made him a celebrated pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art in the 1950s and the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation.

In 1934, in a small room of the local Hermannsburg Mission where he lived, Namatjira viewed an exhibition of watercolour paintings by Melbourne artist Rex Battarbee. Struck by their depictions of his country, he began to teach himself to paint landscapes and in 1936 he accompanied Battarbee as a guide on a painting trip through the Western MacDonnell Ranges.

He quickly developed a unique style and his paintings became popular throughout Australia, though critics were divided. Superficially, his landscapes appeared conventionally rendered, but he painted 'his country' - places imbued with his ancestral connections.

Namatjira's fame grew during the 1950s and he was feted on visits to the east coast. In 1953 he was awarded the Queen's Coronation Medal, and the following year he met the Queen. In 1956, Sir William Dargie's Portrait of Albert Namatjira won the Archibald Prize.

Portrait of Albert Namatjira

In the early 1950s, William Dargie had painted with Albert Namatjira in Central Australia several times and the mutual respect they developed is evident in this dignified and reserved portrait. In Dargie's Sydney studio, over the course of a fortnight, Namatjira sat for Dargie in the early mornings while Dargie worked on the canvas. After winning the 1956 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the portrait was acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery in 1957. Since then, it has become accepted as the iconic image of Australia's most recognised Indigenous artist.

In 1957, Albert Namatjira and his wife Rubina were the first Aboriginal people granted Australian citizenship. Yet, despite fame and citizenship, his life remained heavily controlled, reflecting the tragic gap between the rhetoric and reality of Australia's assimilation policies. By the end of the 1950s, his family was living in a creek bed on the outskirts of Alice Springs. In 1959, at the age of 57, Namatjira died of what his community considered a 'broken heart'.

A skilled artist and a proud Arrernte (Aranda) elder, Albert Namatjira continues to inspire. A school of painting has formed around him, and many artists have been compelled to tell his story through their own works.

DELVE DEEPER INTO THE australian collection

The 'Indigenous Australian Collection: Namatjira Story' features early works by Albert Namatjira alongside artworks by those he influenced, including artists from the Arrernte landscape painting tradition, the Hermannsburg Potters and his great-grandson, Vincent Namatjira.
Bruce McLean is Curator, Indigenous Australian Art

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Albert Namatjira (28 July 1902 - 8 August 1959) was a Western Arrernte-speaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges, west of Alice Springs in Central Australia. His Western-style landscapes, different from traditional Aboriginal art, made him a celebrated pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art in the 1950s and the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation....

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Albert Namatjira's Mentor

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Rex Battarbee was born in Warrnambool, Victoria and educated at the local state school and at Warrnambool Academy. In January 1916, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and joined the 58th Battalion in France. During the fighting at Bullecourt, he was shot through the chest, face and both arms. He was invalided to Australia and hospitalized until late 1920; his left arm remained crippled.

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Read about the ongoing influence of Albert Namatjira.

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For many Australians whose exposure to Aboriginal art was prior to the 1970s, the name of Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) is likely to nominate the first famous Aboriginal artist they would recognise. Albert Namatjira held his first exhibition in Melbourne in 1938 and his fine watercolour paintings of the dramatic Australian landscapes around his home community at Hermannsburg created great interest and instant sales success.
Albert Namatjira first saw the watercolour paintings in 1934 of two artists, Rex Battarbee and John Gardner, who were painting in Central Australia at the time. Namatjira was immediately interested in learning about the medium and his persistence paid off - Rex Battarbee took him on his next painting expedition in 1936. With Albert as the guide, they visited some spectacular locations around the Western MacDonnell Ranges in the vicinity of Albert's homelands near Hermannsburg. These exceptional landscapes were immortalised in the paintings that Albert Namatjira created, and for Australians, who had rarely seen such country, the colour and the light in his desert paintings was a revelation.

Albert Namatjira's reputation grew during the 1940s and 1950s and he met with visiting dignitaries from around the world, including the Queen of England. Albert's exhibitions continued to sell extremely well and Albert shared his skills with other countrymen, going on to inspire a whole generation of artists. Among the first to learn from Albert was Walter Ebatarinja and the Pareroultja Brothers - Edwin, Otto and Reuben - who had a totemic kinship bond to Albert, and then Albert's five sons - Enos, Oscar, Ewald, Keith and Maurice.

By combining their deep ancestral connection to their Arrente country and their drawing skills in representing the immensity of the country and the changing effects of the light, Albert Namatjira and the artists that he inspired established a powerful school of painting that had a major impact across Australia. The recognisable Aboriginal qualities of the artworks provided a unique view of the land and created some of the first bridges between Aboriginal and western cultures, which were later reinforced by other forms of desert art.

Rex Battarbee maintained his close association with Albert Namatjira and the artists group, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s exhibited and promoted the artists' work. By the 1960s Albert Namatjira was a household name. But the end of Albert's life was marred by cultural difficulties and contradictions. Living in Alice Springs and granted full citizen rights, Albert was in a position that none of his countrymen shared. His cultural obligations to his clan group put him in an impossible position - he could not have privileges and assets without sharing them with his fellow Arrente kinsmen. In this era Aboriginal people did not possess citizen rights and could not obtain alcohol, and Albert who could do so, was under pressure to provide for his countrymen. In following his cultural obligations Albert was breaking the law, and was imprisoned. This largely broke his spirit and Albert Namatjira retired back into his homelands and died at the age of 57.

Albert Namatjira's legacy continues. There are still grandchildren of the artist and many other descendants who keep the Hermannsburg tradition alive, exhibiting and selling beautiful works, all based in Albert's traditional lands of the West MacDonnell Ranges. Albert Namatjira remains a famous name more than fifty years after his death, and his paintings command significant prices when they come up at auction.

Links -

Douglas Abbott
Hermannsburg Artists ; Namatjira Legacy

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Albert Namatjira & the Hermannsburg School - Japingka Aboriginal Art Gallery

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For many Australians whose exposure to Aboriginal art was prior to the 1970s, the name of Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) is likely to nominate the first famous Aboriginal artist they would recognise. Albert Namatjira held his first exhibition in Melbourne in 1938 and his fine watercolour paintings of the dramatic Australian landscapes around his home community at Hermannsburg created great interest and instant sales success.

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An introduction to the artist.

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Albert Namatjira Heavitree Gap,Ngurratjuta Collection, Alice Springs

Albert Namatjira is one of Australia's great artists, and perhaps the best known Aboriginal painter. His western style landscapes - different to traditional Aboriginal art, made him famous. Fame led to Albert and his wife becoming the first Aborigines to be granted Australian citizenship. It was a significant achievement, because at this time Aborigines had few rights. He wasn't born Albert Namatjira. His parents called him Elea. But after moving to an Aboriginal mission (Hermannsburg) and adopting Christianity, they baptised and renamed their son.

Mission life was nothing like the life Albert Namatjira's people lived in the deserts of the Northern Territory. That was a lifestyle he knew little about, until he turned thirteen. At the age of thirteen Albert experienced an important Aboriginal ritual - initiation. As one of the Aranda group, he lived in the bush for six months and was taught traditional laws and customs by tribal elders. Work as a camel driver took Albert through the country he would later paint, the dreamtime places of his Aranda people.

Albert Namatjira's watercolour tradition lives on through his family. Explore their paintings in our online gallery!

By this time he had married Ilkalita, a member of a neighboring community. The couple built a house near the mission, and Albert supported his growing family by doing odd jobs. These included making and selling small pieces of artwork. In 1934 two Melbourne artists visited the mission to exhibit their paintings. Seeing them, Albert Namatjira was inspired to paint seriously. Two years later, he volunteered to show one of the painters, Rex Batterbee, good places to paint. In exchange, Rex taught Albert how to paint. Albert was a fast learner. He thought he had a natural gift, and he was right. Albert's first exhibition, held in Melbourne in 1938, sold out. Exhibitions in Adelaide and Sydney drew similar enthusiasm. Even the Queen liked his work

Albert Namatjira was a celebrity, but not always a comfortable one. It was always a relief for him to leave the big smoke and return to his desert home. Success brought money - and Albert planned to use it to secure a future for his family. He wanted to lease a cattle station - but as an Aborigine he wasn't allowed.

Next he tried to build a house in Alice Springs. Once again the law prevented him, just because he was Aboriginal. It was a strange situation. Here was a man, heralded as a top artist, treated like a celebrity and yet not even allowed to own land. "He was definitely the beginning of a recognition of Aboriginal people by white Australia." Charles Perkins

Public outrage at Albert's predicament pushed the government to grant him and his wife full citizenship in 1957. This meant they could vote, enter a hotel and build a house anywhere they chose. It took ten years for the government to grant similar rights to the rest of the Aboriginal population.

As a citizen Albert Namatjira could now also buy alcohol. In keeping with Aboriginal custom, Albert's friends expected him to share any alcohol he bought. But in doing this he broke white man's laws. In 1958, police charged Albert with supplying alcohol to Aboriginal people. He denied the charge, but the court didn't believe him. After two months in prison, Albert emerged a free, but broken man. He had lost his will to paint, and to live. Albert Namatjira died in 1959. He was just fifty-seven years old.

Albert Namatjira's life and work have inspired other Aboriginal people to paint. Among them have been his children and grand-children. This great painter captured Australia's heart in artwork and was praised around the world. His life showed white Australians the injustice of racist laws, and contributed to long overdue changes for his people.

Source: abc.net.au

Support us

Donations to Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands art centre support the development of the Hermannsburg School of Art, the nationally and internationally renowned watercolour art movement of Albert Namatjira's descendants.

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Albert Namatjira - Australia's most famous aboriginal artist

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Albert Namatjira Heavitree Gap,Ngurratjuta Collection, Alice Springs Albert Namatjira is one of Australia's great artists, and perhaps the best known Aboriginal painter. His western style landscapes - different to traditional Aboriginal art, made him famous. Fame led to Albert and his wife becoming the first Aborigines to be granted Australian citizenship.

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A biography - published in the Australian Dictionary of Biography

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Biography - Albert (Elea) Namatjira - Australian Dictionary of Biography

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Albert (Elea) Namatjira (1902-1959), artist, was born on 28 July 1902 at Hermannsburg (Ntaria), Northern Territory, son of Namatjira and his wife Ljukuta.

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More about Albert.

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Albert Namatjira (1902-59) became interested in painting at the Hermannsburg Mission in the 1930s. After learning watercolour technique, he was persuaded to exhibit his work in Melbourne in 1938. The exhibition sold out in two days. During the 1940s his work became fashionable throughout Australia and he was the subject of a biography and a film.

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Another letter from Albert to Rex Battarbee

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Another letter from Albert to Rex Battarbee

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Read this article about the actual trees that feature in Albert Namatjira's work. Note the comments towards the end of the article that compare Albert's work to that of Sidney Nolan

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Monuments to Namatjira legacy lost to suspicious fire

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TWO majestic ghost gums that were iconic images in Albert Namatjira's landscape paintings have burnt to the ground in suspicious circumstances, just weeks before they were due to be placed on the heritage register.

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Read what the well known portrait artist, William Dargie, had to say about Albert Namatjira.

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Albert Namatjira (1902-59), painter, became interested in painting at the Hermannsburg Mission in the 1930s. After learning watercolour technique, he was persuaded to exhibit his work in Melbourne in 1938. The exhibition sold out in two days. During the 1940s his work became fashionable throughout Australia and he was the subject of a biography and a film.