Albert Namatjira

Albert Namatjira , born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Arrerntespeaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. As a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation. Born and raised at the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission outside Alice Springs, Namatjira showed interest in art from an early age, but it was not until 1934 , under the tutelage of Rex Battarbee, that he began to paint seriously. Namatjiras richly detailed, Western artinfluenced watercolours of the outback departed significantly from the abstract designs and symbols of traditional Aboriginal art, and inspired the Hermannsburg School of painting. He became a household name in Australiaindeed, reproductions of his works hung in many homes throughout the nationand he was publicly regarded as a model Aborigine who had succeeded in mainstream society.

Born at Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission, near Alice Springs in 1902, Namatjira was raised on the Hermannsburg Mission and baptised after his parents adoption of Christianity. He was born as Elea, but once baptised, they changed his name to Albert. After a westernstyle upbringing on the mission, at the age ofNamatjira returned to the bush for initiation and was exposed to traditional culture as a member of the Arrernte community . He developed the love and respect of his land that is seen in his works. After he returned, he married his wife Rubina at the age of 18. His wife, like his fathers wife, was from the wrong skin group and he violated the law of his people by marrying outside the classificatory kinship system . In 1928 he was ostracised for several years in which he worked as a camel driver and saw much of Central Australia, which he was later to depict in his paintings.

Source: Wikipedia