exhibition The William Brown Hermannsburg Painting Collection
From 11th to 29th February 2008Special February Offering
Special February Offering
Dear Valued Clients and Friends,
Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery is delighted to have secured a collection of 82 paintings from the estate of the late William Brown.
Brown, a devoted friend of many Aranda painters, purchased works throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s both directly from the artists, and more commonly, through the District Welfare Officer appointed to safeguard the interests of the artists and protect them from exploitation.
The flowering of naturalistic watercolours in the European tradition of classical landscape painting was the first significant transitional art movement to emerge from Aboriginal Australia. The paintings capture, in a direct and charming way, the Western MacDonnell Ranges and the surrounding region. Images depict the early morning light touching the foothills of Mount Sonder and Mount Wedge, , gleaming white ghost gums against Glen Helen’s red escarpments, the blue waterholes of Ormiston Gorge as it reflects the clear blue sky, the blue haze veiling Glen Helen Gorge, and the Finke River as well as Palm Valley, Haasts Bluff, and much more.
Artist’s whose works are included in the collection are Otto and Edwin Pareroultja, Walter Ebatarinja, Oscar, Enos, Ewald and Keith Namatjira, Benjamin Landara, Richard Moketarinja, Basil Rantji, Claude Panka, along with Arnulf and Cordula Ebatarinja, Herbert Raberaba, Gabriel and Maurice Namatjira, Kenneth Entata, Lindsay Imbarndarinja and Athanius Titus Renkaraka.
Worthy of special mention are works by Otto Pareroultja, and his brother Edwin, part of what Rex Battarbee referred to as the ‘breakaway group’ amongst the new generation that followed Albert Namatjira. Otto Pareroultja was twelve years younger than Namatjira, and despite Battarbee’s initial preference for works by his younger brother Edwin, it is the elder brother’s work that has been consistently compared with that of the senior artist. Even in 1947, when he first began painting, there were those who inferred that Otto’s works resonated with that of European modernists such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gaugin in that they were distinguished by brilliant colour, dense patterning and rhythmically pulsating landscapes. It is fascinating to look at the textured surface of his gum trees and the surrounding landscape and note their resonance with the iconographic western desert paintings that followed a decade or two later.
Since 2000 the work of Albert namatjira and those who followed him has undergone an extensive re-evaluation and have emerged as being highly collectable. This is true most notably of paintings by, Otto Pareroultja, Benjamin Landara and several of Albert Namatjira’s sons who are all represented in this unique collection. All of these artists have been reopresented strongly in the secondary market as their paintings have increased inexorably in value since the 1960’s when they were painted. In turn these artists gave birth to a wide range of new and innovative and collectable art forms including those produced in the highly successful Hermannsburg Pottery and art centres in surrounding communities.
With our very best wishes,
Adrian Newstead
Kerry Williams
Alexandra Weare
Artworks
24 x 36 cm
#7464
SOLD
25 x 35 cm
#7465
SOLD
35 x 51 cm
#7540
SOLD
33 x 51 cm
#7541
SOLD
34 x 52 cm
#7542
SOLD
35 x 53 cm
#7604
SOLD
24 x 34 cm
#7462
SOLD
26 x 37 cm
#7484
SOLD
23 x 34 cm
#7459
SOLD
24 x 35 cm
#7460
SOLD
26 x 35 cm
#7461
SOLD
25 x 36 cm
#7463
SOLD
27 x 15 cm
#7474
SOLD
25 x 35 cm
#7489
SOLD
26 x 33 cm
#7485
SOLD
29 x 36 cm
#7486
SOLD
27 x 37 cm
#7487
SOLD
26 x 36 cm
#7488
SOLD
27 x 37 cm
#7528
SOLD
19 x 27 cm
#7527
SOLD
37 x 53 cm
#7495
SOLD
34 x 51 cm
#7551
SOLD
