Albert Namatjira born Elea Namatjira, was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n artist. He was a Western Arrernte

Western Arrernte

Western Arrernte refers to Arrernte people who traditionally live in Arrernte lands west of Alice Springs. It also refers to a dialect of the Arrernte language that is spoken in this area. Some people argue that Western Arrernte is an entirely different language and group of people to Central...

 man, an Indigenous Australian of the Western MacDonnell Ranges

MacDonnell Ranges

The MacDonnell Ranges of the Northern Territory, are a long series of mountain ranges located in the centre of Australia , and consist of parallel ridges running to the east and west of Alice Springs...

 area. Albert Namatjira is perhaps Australia's best known Aboriginal painter, with his work forming one of the foundations of contemporary Indigenous Australian art

Contemporary Indigenous Australian art

Contemporary Indigenous Australian art is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians. It is generally regarded as beginning with a painting movement that started at Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs, Northern Territory in 1971, involving artists such as Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri...

.

He is best known for his watercolour Australian outback

Outback

The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...

 desert landscapes, a style which inspired the Hermannsburg School

Hermannsburg School

The Hermannsburg School is an art movement, or art style, which began at the Hermannsburg Mission in the 1930s. The most well known artist of the style is Albert Namatjira...

 of Aboriginal art

Australian Aboriginal art

Indigenous Australian art is art made by the Indigenous peoples of Australia and in collaborations between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians . It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpture, ceremonial clothing and sandpainting...

. While his work is 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 Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

 Indigenous Australian to be freed from the restrictions of legislation that made Aborigines wards of the State.
Born at Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission

Hermannsburg, Northern Territory

Hermannsburg is an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory of Australia, 131 km southwest of Alice Springs. It is known in the local Western Arrernte language as Ntaria....

, near Alice Springs

Alice Springs, Northern Territory

Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...

 in 1902, Namatjira was raised on the Hermannsburg Mission and baptised after his parents' adoption of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

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