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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Australian Indigenous & Oceanic Art
• Sale Date:
  21 Jul 2015 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  72
• Lot Description:
  Albert Namatjira
  (1902-1959)
  Amulda Gorge, James Range (1948)
  watercolour
  signed 'ALBERT NAMATJIRA' lower right
  38 x 52.5 cm
• Provenance:
  Anthenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne; Leslie Gair, Melbourne (acquired in 1948); By descent; Private Collection, New South Wales
• Exhibited:
  Albert Namatjira, Arunta Tribesman: Central Australian Water Colours, Athenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne, 1-12 November 1948, cat. no. 30
• Notes:
  Amulda Gorge can be counted among Albert Namatjira's most accomplished compositions. The artist has located himself among boulders, with an elevated perspective, before the gateway to a monumental land. He anticipates the shadow world that lies tantalizingly within these forbidding slopes. Namatjira leads us into the gorge, via a defined road that declares for all its ruggedness, this as a humanized landscape. Amulda Gorge (or Amulda Gap as it is now known) is shown cutting through a massive ridge, capped with crags. Scree slopes tumble toward the creekbed, while the skeletons of burnt trees at the base of the incline, convey the scale of the scene. A darkened ridge thwarts the artist's view through the gap, over which hovers a blue rock-capped horizon can be glimpsed. Namatjira would have been well aware that water could be found in damp sand of this apparently dry creekbed. Hence the exposed rock of the hillside is contrasted with promise of shade, suggested by the canopies of River Red Gums enfolded within the sinuous path of the river. Despite the ominous scale of Amulda Gorge, Namatjira uses overlapping forms and atmospheric perspective to convey the awesome immensity of the land in which this epic scene is set. Namatjira's Amulda Gorge can be compared with Edwin Pareroultja, Amulda Gorge (c.1947, Art Gallery of New South Wales) a representation of the same site from the same bank of the gorge. In contrast to Namatjira's 'photo realism', Pareroultja's representation is positively vertiginous; his modernist approach apparently the reason why his version of Amulda Gorge was selected as the first work by an Indigenous artist to be purchased for the state collection. Namatjira's version of Amulda Gorge was regarded of such quality that Legend Press reproduced the work on greeting cards. As a consequence of these affordable, high-quality reproductions, Namatjira's watercolours were disseminated throughout Australia, making him the most recognizable and popular artist post WWII. It is not clear why Namatjira chose the site to this paint, quite apart from it obvious scenic attractions, for it lays in the Krichauff Ranges, near Areyonga, well west of his home country. According to T.G.H. Strehlow, Amulda/Multa is so called because it is the site where an ancestral kangaroo had pressed its forearm (multa) into the ground. The site's custodian, at the time of painting, was Dick Mulda a highly respected leader of the Kukatja people. John Kean
• Estimate:
  A$40,000 - 60,000
• 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.