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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Australian Indigenous & Oceanic Art
• Sale Date:
  21 Jul 2015 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  71
• Lot Description:
  Albert Namatjira
  (1902-1959)
  Mt Giles, Ormiston Pound (1947)
  watercolour
  signed 'ALBERT NAMATJIRA' lower right
  26 x 35.5 cm
• Provenance:
  Commercial Bank Chambers, Brisbane; Leslie Gair, Melbourne (acquired in 1947);By descent; Private Collection, New South Wales
• Exhibited:
  Albert Namatjira: Watercolours of Central Australia, Commercial Bank Chambers, Brisbane, 4 - 8 November 1947, cat. no. 5
• Notes:
  Albert Namatjira had been a dedicated craftsman for several years before taking up the brush. Images emblazoned on his early boomerangs, woomeras and mulga plaques attest to Namatjira's exceptional powers of observation and flair for design. It was during a celebrated expedition, with the intrepid artist Rex Battarbee in 1936, that Namatjira learned the watercolour techniques that would bring him into public prominence. Importantly, Namatjira's early experience as a 'camel boy' gave him the capacity to carry provisions, camping gear and painting equipment required for extended travel to distant picturesque locales. Namatjira was in every way a man of the twentieth century. On receipt of his first income tax assessment in 1946, Namatjia bought a small truck, enhancing his mobility for painting trips out west, incorporating visits to relatives at the newly established mission outposts at Haasts Bluff and Areyonga. Significantly, Battarbee taught Namatjira to paint en plein air, noting the way light moved slowly over his subject. Battarbee was a keen photographer who used the camera as an aide-memoire in his painting practice. Significantly Battarbee demonstrated how to hold his squared-off index fingers and thumbs in front of his eyes to create a framing device. Namatjira frequently utilized the technique when composing his paintings. Battarbee later gave Namatjira a camera and further instruction on developing film. While none of Albert's photographs have been identified, the verisimilitude of works, such as Amulda Gorge suggests that Namatjira was profoundly influenced by 'modern' ways of seeing.5 John Kean 1 Jane Hardy, 'Visitors to Hermannsburg: An essay in cross-cultural learning', in The Heritage of Namatjira: The Watercolourists of Central Australia, Port Melbourne, William Heinemann Australia, 1992, p. 138 2 Peter Sutton, 'Melbourne's Outback', Dialogue (Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia), Vol. 28, No. 2, 2009, pp. 74-77 3 Letter from Namatjira to Gair (transcribed in 1965), Gair family archive 4 Theodor George Henry Strehlow, Rex Battarbee: artist and founder of the aboriginal art movement in Central Australia, Sydney, Legend Press, 1956, p. 38 5 Martin Edmond, Battarbee and Namatjira, Artamon, Girimondo Publishing Company, 2014, p.152-157
• Estimate:
  A$18,000 - 25,000
• 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.