Untitled

Untitled, by the Western Aranda artist Albert Namatjira, is one of two watercolours by him in the Gallery’s collection that depict the yelka nut, or bush onion. The painting is replete with oval forms, infilled with patterns in bright tones. These oval shapes depict coolamons, or wooden dishes, which are used to carry food; in this instance, the bulbs of the yelka nut. Parallel lines represent the stones used to remove the skins of the nut.

Born in 1902 at Ntaria (Hermannsburg), 125 kilometres west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Namatjira was renowned for his luminous and sensitive realist watercolour landscapes of Country, these revealing his innate and intimate cultural knowledge of and spiritual connection to the ancestral sites inherited from his parents. Although pictorially different from those paintings, Untitled represents the totem place of the yelka nut, which is at Nuamana in Palm Valley, Namatjira’s mother’s Country.

Namatjira’s landscape paintings were initially thought to align with the Western pictorial tradition. However, contemporary re-evaluations show that he was actively reclaiming Country rather than assimilating it through the medium of watercolour. Untitled adds further understanding to Namatjira’s work and offers a new perspective on long-held assumptions about the artist and his practice.

Gloria Strzelecki, Associate Curator of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art