Press Releases - Japingka Gallery Australia

Current Exhibition

Press Releases - Japingka Gallery Australia

Indigenous Art: A Promising View to the Future

In answer to the frequently asked question, “What will happen to Indigenous art with the passing of the great artistic elders?” Japingka Gallery has mounted two exhibitions which show a promising future through direct lines of artistic lineage.

The exhibition in Japingka’s Gallery1, Heirs and Successors, focuses on renowned elders from the central and western deserts along with their successors, while the exhibition in Gallery2, Namitjira Legacy, shows the strong artistic inheritance from the so-called ‘Hermannsburg School’ led by Australia’s famous Western Arrernte (Aranda) artist, Albert Namatjira.

Heirs and Successors follows the lineage through to the next generations of artists who are carrying on the stories of the significant painters from the canon of the Central Desert Indigenous art movement. The names are great. George Ward Tjungurrayi. Minnie Pwerle. Jimmy Baker. Walangkura Napanangka, Naata Nungarrayi, Ningura Napurrula, Ngoia Pollard.

While traditional stories and iconography are carried through onto the canvases of the next generation of painters with respect, the younger artists add a new vigour and freshness of palette, heralding some great new names for the future.

The Western Arrernte tradition of watercolour painting, which famously began in 1934 with the meeting between Albert Namatjira and established Melbourne watercolourist Rex Battarbee, has left a rich legacy for future generations. Rex Battarbee is reputed to have said “I taught Albert how to use watercolours, but Albert taught me how to paint.”

Namatjira’s landscape paintings provided the first vision to a wide audience of the Arrernte world and the dramatic locations around the Western MacDonnell Ranges. Namatjira taught his relatives and countrymen well, and a strong school of painting continues seventy four years after the first successful exhibition of his paintings. Namatjira Legacy brings together fourteen artists following in Albert Namatjira’s footsteps, including Kevin and Lenie Namatjira, Albert Namatjira jnr, Douglas Kwarlple Abbott, Ivy Pareroultja, and Elton Wirri. This exhibition of iconographic and stunningly beautiful watercolours is proudly presented in association with Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra – Many Hands Art Centre.

These two exhibitions provide an exceptional opportunity to view and collect paintings by both the great Indigenous masters and their successors.

Back to dealer/gallery profile