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Albert Namatjira (28 July 1902 – 1959), born
Elea Namatjira is an Australian Aborigine artist
of the Arrernte (Aranda) tribe. 
Though in his early career he painted a wide
variety of subjects, he is best known for his
watercolour Australian outback desert landscapes. 
Whilst his work is obviously the product of his
life and experiences, his paintings are not in the
highly symbolic style of traditional Aboriginal
art; they are richly detailed depictions.
He is also notable for being the first Australian
Aborigine to be granted Australian citizenship.

==Early years==

Born near Alice Springs, he was raised on
Hermannsburg Mission, Northern Territory and was
baptised Albert after his parents' adoption of
Christianity. After a western style upbringing on
the mission, Albert undertook the Aboriginal
Initiation rite|ritual of initiation at the age of
thirteen and was exposed to traditional culture,
as a member of the Arrernte community (which he
was to eventually became an elder within), and
obtained the love and respect of his land that was
show in his works. After he returned, he married
his wife Rubina at the age of 18. His wife, like
his fathers wife, was from a neighboring tribe and
he broke the law of his people by marrying her. He
was ostracised for several years in which he
worked as a camel driver and saw much of inland
Australia where he was to later paint.

Although doing a small amount of rough but
non-traditional artwork in his youth, he was
introduced to western style painting through an
exhibition by two painters from Melbourne at his
mission in 1934. One of these painters, Rex
Batterbee, returned to the area in the winter of
1936 to paint the landscape and Albert acted as a
guide to show him local scenic areas. In return
Albert was shown how to paint with watercolours, a
skill that he quickly excelled at. While he first
started with crayons, he quickly progressed into
watercolours and soon Battarbee began to realise
Albert's true potential.

==The height of success==

Albert Namatjira started painting in a distinctly
unique style. His landscapes normally highlighted
both the rugged geological features of the land in
the background, and the distinctive Australian
flora in the foreground with very old stately and
majestic trees surrounded by twisted scrub. His
work had a high quality of illumination showing
the gashes of the land and the twists in the trees
in a breathtaking manner. His colours were similar
to the ochres that his ancestors had used to show
the same landscape, but his style was able to be
appreciated by Europeans.

In 1938 his first exhibition was held in Melbourne
and sold out. As did his subsequent exhibitions in
Sydney and Adelaide. For ten years Namatjira
continued to paint and his works continued to sell
quickly and his popularity continued to rise.
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth
II became one of his more notable fans and he was
awarded the Queen's Coronation medal in 1953 and
met her in Canberra in 1954. Not only did his own
art become wildly recognised, but even a painting
of him by William Dargie won the Archibald Prize
in 1956. He became popular, critically acclaimed
and wealthy. He however was always glad to return
to the outback.


== Works ==

Namatjira's works were colourful and varied
depictions of the Australian landscape.  One of
his first landscapes done in 1936, Central
Australian Landscape shows a land of rolling green
hills. Another early work, Ajantzi Waterhole
(1937) shows a close up view of a small waterhole,
with Albert capturing the reflection in the water
beautifully well. The landscape becomes one of
contrasting colours, with red hills and green
trees in Red Bluff(1938), with this device of
complimentary colours that is often used by
Western painters. Central Australian Gorge (1940)
shows detailed rendering of rocks and reflections
in the water. In Flowering Shrubs he contrasts the
blossoming flowers in the foreground with the more
barren desert and cliffs in the background.
Namatjira's love of trees was often described so
that his paintings of trees were more portraits
than landscapes, which is shown in the portrait of
the often depicted ghost gum tree in Ghost Gum
Glen Helen (c.1945-49) His skills at colouring
trees can be seen clearly in this portrait and
Namatjira was fully aware of his own talent, as
when describing another landscape painter
Namatjira said to William Dargie 

"He does not know how to make the side of a tree
which is in the light look the same colour as the
side of the tree in shadow...I know how to do
better." 

His skills kept increasing with experience as is
shown in the highly photographic quality Mt
Hermannsburg (1957) painted only two years before
he died.


==Citizenship and demise==

Namatjira decided to use his wealth to lease a
cattle station. This was however not legally
possible because of the fact that he was
Aboriginal. He then tried to build a house in
Alice Springs which he was also prevented from
doing so because of his status. Despite the fact
that he was held as one of Australia's greatest
artists he could not own land, because of his
immense popularity this caused public outrage. The
government granted Albert and his wife Australian
citizenship in 1957, ten years before citizenship
was granted to all Aborigines. This entitled them
to vote, own land, build a house and buy alcohol.

Unfortunately Albert was not legally allowed to
supply his Aboriginal friends with alcohol, which
was expected of him by the culture of his tribe
who did not have the concept of personal property.
After an Aboriginal woman killed her husband in an
alcohol related brawl Namatjira was held
responsible by the community for bringing alcohol
into the camp. When Albert left as a result, he
left his alcohol with the people of the community.
This however was a crime and he was sentenced to
six months in prison for supplying Aboriginals
with liquor. When he was released after two months
he became despondent and did not paint again until
he died soon after in 1959 in Alice Springs, only
two years after he was granted citizenship.

==Since his death==

At the time of his death he had painted a total of
around two thousand paintings and had three
biographical films made about him. His unique
style of painting however was denounced soon after
his death by many indigenous art puritans as being
a product of his assimilation into western culture
rather than his own connection to his subject
matter or his natural style. This view although
still present in some critics thoughts has been
largely abandoned and Albert Namatjira is hailed
as one of the greatest Australian artists of all
time and a pioneer for Aboriginal rights.
Namitjira's work is on public display in most of
Australia's major art galleries.

==External links==
*http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/namatjira-albert
.html Biography - Australian National Botanic
Gardens
*http://www.abc.net.au/btn/australians/namat.htm
Biography (ABC)
*http://www.aboriginalpottery.com/namatjira.html
Biography - Aboriginal Art Online
* http://www.nga.gov.au/namatjira/ National
Gallery of Australia travelling Namitjira
exhibition - contains images of his work