OSCAR NAMATJIRA - UNTITLED
OSCAR NAMATJIRA
UNTITLED,
53 x 72 cm (frame 72 x 92 cm)
Watercolour on Board
REGION
Hermannsburg Central Desert, NT
PROVENANCE
Painted at Hermannsburg, NT
Private Collection, Tas
STORY
Oscar was born in 1922. He attended mission school before joining the Army Labor Gang in 1942. Three years later he returned to the mission and took up painting. One of Oscars first jobs was to drive his fathers truck. Oscar would drive Albert to his various painting spots and leave him with supplies.
‘Some people think Oh! Only dot painting really has meaning. Landscape is only pretty coloured rocks and trees. We only want dot paintings. But these hills have meaning and we have stories too, the landscape artists. We also talk about where the different Dreamings come from, and where they meet up and so on. We have two ways of painting: sand painting and landscapes. For us they both have the same Dreaming story. The landscape painting we do, it shows the country. We don’t just paint anything, that’s not our way. We are inspired by the country and the Dreaming as we paint.’
Jillian Namatjira
EXHIBITED
Hermannsburg Salon, July 2022, Cooee Art | Redfern
Oceanic Art Fair 2022, November 2022, National Art School, Sydney
ARTIST PROFILE