Ewald namatjira biography of michael
Ewald Namatjira’s distinctive style was influenced by an unfortunate childhood incident with a rifle that resulted in the loss of one of his eyes. The third son of Albert and Rubina Namatjira, Ewald Namatjira was born in 1930, at the Lutheran Mission of Hermannsburg on Western Arrernte Country in Central Australia. He was taught to paint at a young age by his father, Albert Namatjira, who famously embraced the western style of watercolour landscapes, alongside his friend and mentor, Rex Battarbee.
His depictions of his Country come alive with the rich ochres of the desert. Each composition reflecting the vastness of the landscape in detailed panoramas that are often framed by the brooding blues and purples of the ancient mountains.
Today, descendants of the early Western Arrernte watercolourists continue to make a vital contribution to contemporary Indigenous art, rendering their Country in watercolours. With new and exciting innovations and collaborations, Arrernte artists continue to share their deep knowledge and connection to the land.
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Ewald Namatjira
Western MacDonnell Ranges
(c. 1955)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004
© The Artist/Licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Limited
Fine Arts | Tineriba Art Gallery
Bukartilla and Tineriba Gallery in Hahndorf, South Australia is an iconic tourist attraction with tribal art from Australia and Papua New Guinea as well as fine art and contemporary art. Visit on your next trip to South Australia.
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Llama Blue
Watercolour Art [Often referred to as the Hermansberg School]
This art movement commenced when Albert Namatjira requested of Rex Batterbee that he be taught the skills of painting with watercolours. Albert became very proficient in this medium, and soon his sons and other relations and acquaintances at Hermansberg also tried their hand. A ready market developed for those art works on paper, which were usually relatively small in size. The art caught the imagination of many Australians and during the 1950’s and 1960’s was very popular. Although in recent years this medium has been over shadowed by the prolific production, by many artists, of ‘traditional’ style paintings in acrylic on canvas, there is still a core of watercolour artists operating in several Central Australian communities.
Tineriba has always maintained an inventory of Central Australian watercolour art, by many of the notable artist:
Including
Oscar Namatjira, Ewald Namatjira, Herbert Namatjira
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Llama Blue
We have a wide selection of artworks by Jacob Stengle and Bluey Roberts, collected over many years. Bluey is noted not only for his paintings on canvas, his designs and artworks on boomerangs, but also for his exquisitively carved emu eggs.
Jonathon Brown Kuminjara is noted for his artworks, often including the desert sands, telling of the destruction caused by the Maralinga ‘tests’ . In contrast, Jacob draws on the stories of his Ngarrindjeri ancestry to bring life to his artwork. Ian Abdullah revisits memories of his children.
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Dear Artist,
Amid 20th Century masterworks here at the Art Gallery of South Australia glimmers a collection of small watercolour landscapes: delicate white ghost gums striped in creeping shadow, wisps of desert brush and tumbleweed, weighty, dirt-red hills under distant clouds. Unlike the museum’s flashier acquisitions, the landscapes hint at timeless spaces, their strokes describing light and leaves, inviting us in with a quiet ease. I drag my nose through a plump, dauby stand of sap green gums, whispering aloud, “Who, what, when, where?”
“Waterhole, Macdonnell Ranges” 1950s
watercolour by Albert Namatjira (1902-1959)
When Elea Namatjira was born in 1902, he was baptized “Albert” and lived with his family at the Hermannsburg Lutherian mission near Alice Springs before being sent into the bush for his initiation at age 13. There, in the shadow of the MacDonnell Ranges on his ancestral land, Albert soaked in the cultural traditions of his Arrernte-speaking people. At 18, he went to work as an outback camel driver, travelling the bush after being ostracized for marrying a girl of a different skin group. When he returned to the Mission in his early thirties, he struck up a friendship with a couple of touring Melbourne plein-air painters. Knowing he was longing to learn how to paint, when the artists returned a few years later, Albert was hired to guide them to local spots in exchange for lessons.
“Illara Creek, Western James Range, Central Australia” ca.1945
watercolour by Albert Namatjira
Within a couple of years, Albert’s enchanting, intuitive watercolours were showing in galleries in Adelaide and Melbourne. Accessible, subject driven and honest, his paintings became wildly popular as a connection to the outback and its people. While his work suffered a critical backlash after his death and was regarded by some as merely an example of successful assimilation policies, Albert Namatjira was eventually recognized as one of Australia’s
Oscar Namatjira
Oscar Namatjira
Born: c. 1922
Deceased: 1991
Language Group: Western Arrernte (Aranda)
Country: Ntaria (Hermannsburg), West of Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Medium: Watercolour on Board
Subjects: Landscape - Hermannsburg School, Untitled Landscape
Oscar was born the second son of Albert Namatjira and is older brother to Ewald, both famous watercolour artists in their own right. He spent his childhood growing up in Hermannsburg and surrounding area.
Oscar began painting in the late 1940's and had finished by around the mid 1970's. His work developed over the years and often depicted landscapes from the Central MacDonnell ranges.
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide, SA
Hermannsburg Art Gallery, NT
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
1974-1976
Art of Aboriginal Australia, touring Canada, Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd, Canada
1989
A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
1989
Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
1991
Heritage of Namatjira, Flinders University Art Museum, Bedford Park, SA
1995
Namatjira Ilakakeye, kinship, creativity and the continuing traditions of the Hermannsburg artists, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA
Hardy, J., Megaw, JVS. & Megaw, MR.
(1992) The Heritage of Namatjira - The Watercolourists of Central Australia, William Heinemann, Australia