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Lot #1 - Albert Namatjira

  • Auction House:
    Mossgreen
  • Sale Name:
    The Alan & Margaret Hickinbotham Collection
  • Sale Date:
    25 Jun 2017 ~ 2pm (Australian Central Standard Time)
  • Lot #:
    1
  • Lot Description:
    Albert Namatjira
    (1902-1959)
    Hermannsberg Mission, circa 1940
    watercolour
    26.5 x 36 cm
    signed lower right: ALBERT NAMATJIRA
    REFERENCES: Jonah Jones, Elwyn Lynn, Mona Byrnes, Albert Namatjira, Alice Springs Printing & Publishing, Alice Springs, 1984, (illustrated, cover); Nadine Amadio, Albert Namatjira: the life and work of an Australian painter, MacMillan, Melbourne, 1986, p. 45 (illustrated); Derek John Mulvaney, Encounters in Place: outsiders and Aboriginal Australians, 1606-1985, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1989, p. 126 (illustrated, plate 1); Alison French, See the Centre: the art of Albert Namatjira, 1902-1959, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002, pp. 37-8; James Murdoch, ‘The rediscovery of Albert Namatjira’, This Australia, Melbourne, summer 1987-7, p. 70 (illustrated)
  • Exhibited:
    Albert Namatjira, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, 20 June – 14 July 1984, cat. no. 21
  • Notes:
    Related Work: Hermannsburg, 1940 (Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide); Fink River Mission and Mount Hermannsburg, (private collection, sold in 2016 for $122,000) Albert Namatjira and his art blossomed against all odds. Firstly, there was his geographical isolation. An Aranda man, he spent most of his life in Hermannsburg: a lonely Lutheran outback station, 125km west of Alice Springs – itself one of the remotest inhabited places on earth. Secondly, there was the severe socio-ethnic background of 1930s Australia in which he lived; one excessively made up of a twisted administration that still viewed the Indigenous population with suspicion, prejudice and open inferiority. Yet, even against these physical and societal detachments, the artist was recognised and celebrated throughout Australia. His art was copied and collected, his rise to stardom was swift and heroic. His imprisonment and death, a tragic coda to his life. In some ways, his greatest achievement was not just becoming a great painter, but becoming accepted as one. Today, almost sixty years after his passing, the art of Albert Namatjira has stood the test of critical analysis to the point where he is widely considered one of Australia’s greatest artists. Born in Hermannsburg in 1902, Namatjira was distinguished with an ability to absorb and master new skills at a rapid rate. He embraced several trades and became a proficient blacksmith, carpenter, stockman and camel driver. The watershed moment for his art sprung in 1934 when two travelling artists, Rex Battarbee and John A. Gardener, exhibited their Central Australian paintings at the Hermannsburg Mission. While most of the indigenous visitors saw the two-day show as a curious and entertaining incident, for Albert Namatjira it proved to be a life-changing revelation. Indigenous imagery from the Western Desert region – the only art he had ever known – was characterised by schematic designs and religious symbolism. It was an art where abstract shapes and patterned markings topographically represent cultural sites, waterholes, mountains and other important religious spots. In the art of Battarbee and Gardner, Namatjira came face-to-face with an alien way of representing an otherwise intimately familiar landscape. Gripped with an urge to learn the basics of Western painting techniques, Namatjira ordered pencils, watercolours and paper. It was not until Battarbee returned to Hermannsburg two years later, however, that Namatjira earnestly took to mastering the art of watercolour painting. In a matter of weeks, noted Battarbee, ‘Albert quickly understood the rules of perspective, composition, and the way of seeing colour and setting it down on paper. He understood and utilised the fundamentals of art that had taken some people many years to learn.’1 The speed with which he grasped these basic principles was matched by his swift rise to fame and commercial success. Having promptly identified his talent, Battarbee championed the art of Namatjira; he showed the artist’s early works in capital cities, convincing gallery managers around the country to stage solo exhibitions of his watercolours. Albert’s views of Central Australia were such an immediate success that he could barely keep up with the demand. Works selling for 3-5gns in 1938 were, within a decade, commanding 150gns. The success, however, cut both ways. While it bestowed Namatjira with the fame and respect few artists achieve, it eventually complicated his life. In 1954, he met Queen Elizabeth II. In 1957, he was the first Indigenous Australian to be granted – in an ironic gesture that would frustrate our modern sensibilities – a full Australian citizenship. This ‘honour’ gave him privileges otherwise denied to Indigenous people which included freedom of travel, the right to own land, and the purchase of alcohol. However, when he was accused of distributing the latter to friends and family, he was imprisoned. He never recovered from that humiliating setback and died soon after being released. Despite the sad epilogue, and decades of neglect, Namatjira’s art is as popular and recognised today as it was throughout the artist’s lifetime. The few known watercolours that depict the Finke River Mission in Hermannsburg are the most important and highly valued of Albert Namatjira’s oeuvre.2 In fact, the first painting the artist executed was a view of the Mission.3 The present example is the best known of the series still in private hands. It shows the settlement against the imposing backdrop of Ljalkaindirma (Mount Hermannsburg) that rises in this work like layers of stretched curtains hung to dry in the midday sun. The faint-blue sky is painted with a thin wash, punctuated only by a few translucent clouds. The overpowering glare of the outback light is underscored by the brilliant whitewashed sandstone cottages. Half a dozen figures scuttle their way out of the blazing heat towards the cooler shade. Besides capturing the heat of the desert environment, the work has a confident, if naïve, sense of design. The details of the picture are expressed with simple crisp outlines that show us the essential nature of the land and man’s place within it. The entire surface of the paper is developed using thin and delicate, deliberate and precise, washes of aquarelle. When Alison French saw this work, she appropriately described it ‘as a study in red, yellow and blue.’4 The colour scheme, indeed, is typical of the landscape surrounding Hermannsburg – typical of Namatjira. For many viewers, past and present, works such as this were the only window into the Australian outback and its saturated tints. The present work is well known through exhibition and publications. When the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs opened in 1984, its Director, Jonah Jones had selected Namatjira as ‘the most appropriate artist to open this first exhibition.’5 The present work, loaned by the Hickinbotham family, was illustrated on the front cover of the catalogue. It was also reproduced in Nadine Amadio’s biography of the artist in 1986, and discussed and Alison French’s National Gallery of Australia’s retrospective in 2002. We are delighted to be offering, for the first time at auction, Hermannsburg Mission, (circa 1940). It is not only one of the highlights in the Hickinbotham collection, but a standout in the oeuvre of Albert Namatjira. Petrit Abazi 1 Rex Battarbee, cited in Mona Byrnes, ‘Introduction’, Albert Namatjira, Alice Springs Printing & Publishing, Alice Springs, 1984 (unpaginated); 2 In 2006, a new auction record was set when a remarkably similar view to the present work was sold for $96,000 (See Rosalie Higson, ‘Record $96,000 for Namatjira work’, The Australian, 1 November 2006, p. 3); that figure was recently eclipsed when another, later example sold at auction for $122,000 (Sold Sotheby’s Australia, Important Australian Art, Sydney, 31 August 2016, lot 21); 3 See Geoff K. Gray, Australian and European Art, Sydney, 29 August 1973, lot 62 (illustrated), titled Hermannsburg Mission. This is my first paining: Fleeing Kangaroo (double sided); 4 Alison French, See the Centre: the art of Albert Namatjira, 1902-1959, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002, p. 38; 5 Jonah Jones, Elwyn Lynn, Mona Byrnes, Albert Namatjira, Alice Springs Printing & Publishing, Alice Springs, 1984 (unpaginated)
  • Estimate:
    A$25,000 - 35,000
  • Realised Price:
    *****

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  • Category:
    Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.



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