In the 1950s, Albert Namatjira’s iconic watercolor artwork was often sold on the streets of Alice Springs for a few shillings.
Key points:
- Demand for Albert Namatjira artwork has increased, with one piece fetching more than $120,000
- A prominent art owner says people are realizing how important the artist Arrente was.
- A member of Namatjira’s family says his legacy has inspired many others to follow in the artist’s footsteps.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are cautioned that this article may contain images of people who have died.
Over the years and after his death in 1959, his paintings of the vast Central Australian landscape became highly sought after, with collectors from around the world clamoring to own a piece of his work.
There has now been renewed interest in the Arrernte artist and father of the Hermannsburg School with his work setting new records.
Namatjira’s Glen Helen Gorge on paper fetched more than $120,000 when they were auctioned off in Melbourne earlier this year.
In July, his painting The Granseur – Mount Sonda sold in Adelaide for $54,000, an unprecedented price of almost $10,000 above expectations.
“Namatjira’s work doesn’t come on the scene very often, but those works … bring enormous value,” said Jim Elder, auctioneer and owner of Elder Fine Art in Adelaide.
“I don’t think the people of Alice Springs are aware of what really happened to their work.
“He should be taken much more seriously and I think it’s at this time that people are realizing how important he is as an artist.”
Born and raised in the remote Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission, southwest of Alice Springs, Namatjira learned the art of watercolor from visiting European artist Rex Battarbee and was greatly encouraged by the local pastor.
His status grew rapidly in Australia and as a result he became the first indigenous person to gain full citizenship, allowing him to vote and purchase alcohol in 1957.
Elder said that the entire Australian art market was enjoying a wave of optimism lately, but Namatjira’s work had far outpaced the market trend.
“What’s driving all of this is availability, naturally, and people are becoming more familiar with the actual position of this artist in Australian art history,” he said.
“One wonders today, if Namatjira and Rex Battarbee hadn’t come along and discovered it, that whole school of painting wouldn’t have existed.
“We owe a debt, a huge debt, to people like Albert Namatjira, Rex Battarbee and the Hermannsburg School of Artists.”
Legacy painting the way for others
Selma Coulthard was just a little girl when Albert Namatjira died.
She doesn’t remember much about his funeral, but said seeing her artwork left her in no doubt about what she wanted to do when she grew up.
Now an accomplished artist at the Namatjira School of Art in Central Australia, Ms. Coulthard has spent the last three decades carrying forward the art movement that Namatjira first inspired in Hermannsburg so many years ago.
“We have tried to revive his image,” he said.
“Some people don’t remember it because most of their children are gone, so we are the relatives continuing their work and talking about their life here.”
She said Namatjira, widely considered the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation, had always maintained his connection to family and country.
“His connection was to the whole family tribe. It didn’t matter who it was, it was called family,” he said.
“He was a really famous person and his mind was always there because he loved to paint.
“He was writing down what he sees, and it showed, because his love for his country, the land as well, was there in the paintings he did.”
After a decades-long struggle, the copyright to Namatjira’s work was returned to his family in 2017 after it was sold by the Public Trustee in 1983 for $8,500.