ALBERT NAMATJIRA (1902-1959)
Mount Zeil ot Urlatherrke (1,531 m - 5,023 ft)
Australia
Mount Zeil ot Urlatherrke (1,531 m - 5,023 ft)
Australia
In "Glen Helen", watercolor, 1930
The mountain
Mount Zeil (1,531m - 5,023ft) Urlatherrke in aboriginal naming, is a
mountain situated in the western MacDonnell Ranges in Australia's
Northern Territory. It is the highest peak in the Northern Territory,
and the highest peak on the Australian mainland west of the Great
Dividing Range. The others peaks of MacDonell Ranges are: Mount Liebig
(1,524m - 5,000 ft), Mount Edward (1,423m - 4,669 ft), Mount Giles
(1,389m - 4,557 ft) and Mount Sonder (1,380m - 4,530 ft).
It is believed that Mount Zeil was named during or following Ernest
Giles' 1872 expedition, probably after Count Zeil, who had recently
distinguished himself with geographic explorations in Spitzbergen; a
footnote in Giles' published journal implies that the naming was
instigated by his benefactor, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller.
The MacDonnell Ranges, a mountain range and an interim Australian
bioregion, is located in the Northern Territory, comprising 3,929,444
hectares (9,709,870 acres). The range is a 644 km (400 mi) long series
of mountains located in the centre of Australia, and consist of parallel
ridges running to the east and west of Alice Springs. The mountain
range contains many spectacular gaps and gorges as well as areas of
aboriginal significance. The ranges were named after Sir Richard
MacDonnell (the Governor of South Australia at the time) by John
McDouall Stuart, whose 1860 expedition reached them in April of that
year. The Horn Expedition investigated the ranges as part of the
scientific expedition into central Australia. Other explorers of the
range included David Lindsay and John Ross.The headwaters of the Todd,
Finke and Sandover rivers form in the MacDonnell Ranges. The range is
crossed by the Australian Overland Telegraph Line and the Stuart
Highway. Part of the Central Ranges xeric scrub ecoregion of dry scrubby
grassland the ranges are home to a large number of endemic species
including the Centralian Tree Frog. This is mostly due to the micro
climates that are found around the cold rock pools.
The MacDonnell Ranges were often depicted in the paintings of Albert Namatjira.
The Painter
Albert Namatjira born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Arrernte-speaking
Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. As a
pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was the most
famous Indigenous Australian of his generation.
Born and raised at the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission outside Alice
Springs, Namatjira showed interest in art from an early age, but it was
not until 1934 (aged 32), under the tutelage of Rex Battarbee, that he
began to paint seriously. Namatjira's richly detailed, Western
art-influenced watercolours of the outback departed significantly from
the abstract designs and symbols of traditional Aboriginal art, and
inspired the Hermannsburg School of painting. He became a
household name in Australia—indeed, reproductions of his works hung in
many homes throughout the nation—and he was publicly regarded as a model
Aborigine who had succeeded in mainstream society.
Although not the first Aboriginal artist to work in a European style,
Albert Namatjira is certainly the most famous. Ghost gums with luminous
white trunks, palm-filled gorges and red mountain ranges turning purple
at dusk are the hallmarks of the Hermannsburg school.
Hermannsburg Mission was established by Lutheran missionaries in 1877 on
the banks of the Finke River, west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs).
Namatjira learnt watercolour technique from the artist, Rex Battarbee.
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2022- Wandering Vertexes
Un blog de Francis Rousseau
2022- Wandering Vertexes
Un blog de Francis Rousseau
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