Word: namatjira
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...From its beginnings on cave walls at least 20,000 years ago, Aboriginal art has continually shifted shape like the rainbow serpent Ngalyod, the culture's enduring creation figure: from the X-ray styles of ancient Arnhem Land to colonial-era paintings on bark; from Albert Namatjira's mid-century watercolors at Hermannsburg to the contemporary cultural renaissance that is the Western Desert Art Movement, and its fertile offspring. Recently described by former Aboriginal Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone as "Australia's greatest cultural treasure," it is an industry conservatively worth $A200 million a year (see following story). But its complexity...
Died. Albert Namatjira, 57, big-boned aboriginal artist who at 31 began painting Western-style watercolor landscapes in the Australian wilds, which became highly popular in civilized Australia; of a heart attack; in Alice Springs, Australia. Namatjira (Flying Ant) used his fame to press for equal rights for his outcast fellow aborigines, but he enjoyed many of their tribal ways, basked in the adulation of some 60 relatives among whom he freely divided his income, finally won full citizenship and with it the right to buy liquor, which he hauled out to his friends for some wild times, ended...
That was in 1936. Namatjira learned so fast that within a few months he had sold his first watercolor. Price: five shill ings. By 1945 his pictures were so much in demand that 43 watercolors in a Sydney show were sold in 20 minutes, for nearly...
...paints. The example of his fat income-which under tribal custom he must share not only with his wife and six children but with hordes of other rela- tives-caused a whole colony of aboriginal artists to spring up at Hermannsburg. Today Hermannsburg has 18 painters (including three of Namatjira's. sons), who collectively gross nearly $8,000 a year. Some of Namatjira's followers, many critics think, are doing better work than the master, whom they regard as too slick. One of the best is Edwin Pareroultja, also a tribesman, who turns out imaginative landscapes that...
Good Tucker. Last week Painter Namatjira was back in his simple wooden house in Hermannsburg after his first trip to eastern Australia. Albert made the 1,200-mile journey to Canberra in response to a gold-crested invitation to meet his sovereign. Queen Elizabeth II. After being presented to the Queen, he attended a lavish state ball where the tables groaned with caviar and pheasant. Commented Albert, who still eats honey ants at home: "Good tucker...