Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

Not surprisingly, water also appears quite frequently in Namatjira's work. In contrast to Battarbee, who writes about and paints the gorges, rock pools and fertile areas surrounding soak holes in picturesque terms, Namatjira's paintings of the same scenes suggest further orientations. For example, Namatjira's attraction to the 'sublime beauty' of the Hermannsburg Ranges may also be an outcome of his immersion in Lutheran Christianity and its regard for the divinity of creation in nature. Namatjira's 'tourist eye' is tempered as well by an intimate knowledge of his own land and an obvious pride in its virtues as 'good country'. In this way, the link between knowledge and locale gives the country a special importance which intersects with Namatjira's attraction to subjects for their pictorial interest. Conversations reported by Joyce Batty reveal such an intersection, whereby Namatjira speaks of his father's country in dual terms — how he saw the landscape as an artist, while at the same time linking the land to sacred stories and tribal legends associated with each landmark. According to Batty, Namatjira had learned legends of the Dreamtime from his father. She quotes Norman K. Wallis, a Sydney fdmmaker who produced a documentary on Namatjira entitled My Father's Country in 1957: Albert spoke of many things that night. He told us how he saw his country as an artist — the early morning light gently touching Mount Sonder, the blue haze veiling the foothills, gleaming white ghost gums against Glen Helens red escarpments, the blue waterholes of the Ormiston reflecting the clear blue sky. While Albert talked, his dark eyes gleamed in the flickering light from the flames of the camp fire. His voice softened as he spoke of his father and the sacred myths and legends of the Arandas 24 The meshing of country with legend in Namatjira's art is made apparent here and in other commentaries by T. G. H. Strehlow and C. R Mountford. Strehlow wrote in 1947: Mountains and creeks and springs and waterholes are ... not merely interesting or beautiful scenic features ... they are the handiwork of ancestors from whom [an Aranda person] has descended. He sees recorded in the surrounding landscape the ancient story of the lives and the deeds of the immortal beings whom he reveres .25 Other contemporary accounts, such as writer Haliden Hartt's 1944 article in the popular magazine Walkabout, provide contrary perspectives on Namatjira's country, confirming the differences between European and Aboriginal relationships to the land. For Hartt the discoveries of abundant water supplies at Areyonga and Haasts Bluff are considered in terms of their potential to provide the Hermannsburg Mission with vegetables and to raise cattle and sheep.26The Centre is seen as the 'new frontier', capable of sustaining life and providing unlimited opportunities for the European settler, while at the same time providing for a new kind of visitor, the adventurous tourist: 'The road makes a comfortable new way for Australians to come and see the beauties and wonders that wait them here in the productive, still unawakened heart of Australia'.27 Celebration of country, the linking of particular sites to important legends, a discerning choice of subject and the assertion of local knowledge present themselves in Namatjira's paintings. Ian Burn and Ann Stephen have written perceptively about the characteristics that distinguish Namatjira's painting from the western coding of landscape evident in Battarbee's work. They argue that 'the pictures resolve themselves in quite different ways' and that Namatjira's vision represents 'a significant reordering of Western landscape conventions'.28 Some of the points developed by Burn and Stephen — the dispersed focus, lack of a fixed single viewpoint, animation around the edges and calm in the centre, and the enunciation of texture rather than form — are evident in Namatjira's paintings reproduced in the present essay. For instance, Central Australian Gorge overwhelms with its painstaking attention to detail. The tracery of fine lines that weaves through the rock crevices, the presence of jutting, silhouetted rock formations and the drag of colour across the gorge are the result of both keen observation and a very distinct sensibility. In comparison, the pale bluish-yellow tinged hue of the morning sky appears at odds with the rest of the painting — a picturesque element less observed than contrived. However, Central Australian Gorge is not easily read in terms of western landscape conventions, nor does it openly articulate the sort of clear-cut anthropomorphic presence so beloved by tour guides to the area. Namatjira revealed himself to early critics and supporters as an artist capable of satisfying their desire to see his art in terms of an Aboriginal's mastery of European painting traditions and/or as a sign of the continuing Aboriginal presence in, and relationship with, the land. The irony is that while these aspects are present to varying degrees, Namatjira could never fully satisfy the demands of both streams of thought. Indeed, one of the legacies of Namatjira's art is that it challenges and disrupts conventional notions concerning what, as well as how, the landscape is depicted. Rodney James has worked as an education officer at the Queensland Art Gallery and is now a curator and writer based on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. READING NAMAT) IRA 173