Seeing the Centre

Download or read book Seeing the Centre written by Alison French and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Albert Namatjira was a member of the Aranda people of Central Australia (now referred to as the Western Aranda or Arrernte language group). Following the success of his first solo exhibition in Melbourne in 1938, Namatjira became increasingly famous, with popular reproductions of his works being hung in countless Australian homes. The first prominent Indigenous artist to achieve household recognition in a modern idiom, Namatjira subsequently became a tragic figure set against the background of assimilation debates and entangled aesthetic prejudices of the time. His art became virtually ignored by the mainstream of the Australian art world. This book, especially commissioned by the Gordon Darling Foundation and the National Gallery for the centenary of Namatjira's birth, redresses this neglect.