In 1935, after viewing an exhibition of watercolour paintings at Hermannsburg (Ntaria), Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira made his first attempt at a European-style landscape. Namatjira was stimulated to do this for two reasons: he saw the potential to escape the poverty in which he and his extended family lived; and he noted the opportunity to strengthen cultural ties to Arrernte land through a new art form, recording and maintaining stories of country for future generations.

As appreciation of Namatjira’s work grew beyond Hermannsburg, other family members and countrymen joined the painting group. Very quickly, what was initially the vision of one man became a movement, then a school of painting and a tradition, which continues to this day.

Aboriginal people were very mobile throughout this era and the influence of the Hermannsburg School travelled with the artists to many communities. Many early Papunya painters, credited with initiating the contemporary Aboriginal art movement in the 1970s, painted watercolours at least a decade prior to the advent of ‘dot painting’, which has since almost consumed the Aboriginal landscape tradition.

Today the tradition is carried on by small groups of artists with special connections to the original movement. Many of the original painters left Hermannsburg looking to broaden their horizons in Alice Springs; there many family members continue painting in the spirit of their forebears, while spreading this tradition to other Aboriginal artists in town; meantime, in Hermannsburg, a strong group of women artists continue to reinvent the tradition, decorating ceramics with landscapes and animals and painting bold acrylic canvases.

Here, we celebrate what is possibly Aboriginal Australia’s longest continuing contemporary art movement, highlighting its importance through examining its history, from Namatjira to now.
 

‘Namatjira to Now’ was on display at QAG from 23 October 2008 to 15 February 2009. A touring version (2009–11) visited galleries in Stanthorpe, Winton, Ipswich, Redcliffe, Noosa, Dalby, Bundaberg, Gympie, Mackay and the Gold Coast.

Feature image: Albert Namatjira / Arrernte people / Australia NT 1902–59 / (Ghost gums and mountains) c.1945 / Bequest of Cedric Powne 1979 / © Namatjira Legacy Trust/Copyright Agency