- Hermannsburg School
The Hermannsburg School is an art movement, or art style, which began at the
Hermannsburg Mission in the 1930s. The most well known artist of the style isAlbert Namatjira .History
Located 125km west of
Alice Springs , inCentral Australia , Hermannsburg was founded byLutheran missionaries in 1877. TheWestern Arrernte people have lived in this region for thousands of years.In 1941 Rex Battarbee founded the Aranda Art Group, which controlled the supply of materials and helped handle the business affairs of the emerging artists.
Today Hermannsburg is also well known for its potters, particularly its women.
tyle
The Hermannsburg painters' work is characterised by soft hues, usually water colours, of their Western Arrernte landscape, which European
settler s named the Western Macdonnell Ranges.Previously, Western Arrernte people had only used art in a ceremonial sense, as topographical interpretations of their country and their particular
Dreaming s, painted usingsymbols .Early works by Albert also conveyed this spiritual connection with the land. They shared an intimate knowledge of the land on which they had lived for thousands of years. The Ghost Gum features prominently in the works, a sacred and important part of Western Arrernte mythology.
In the best works by Otto Pareroultja trees were painted as ancestral beings with body-like trunks & arm-like branches.
Members
Albert Namatjira began his distinctive style after seeing an exhibition by travelling artists to the mission,
Rex Battarbee and John Gardner, in the 1930s.Other artists from the Hermannsburg school include
Wenten Rubuntja ,Walter Ebatarinja ,Otto Pareroultja , and his brothers Ruben and Edwin, not to mention Albert's sons, Enos, Oscar, Ewald, Maurice and Keith. Other members of the school include the Henoch and Herbert Raberaba brothers.ee also
*
Albert Namatjira External References
* [http://www.hermannsburgpotters.com.au/ The Hermannsburg Potters - female descendants of the original school]
* The Hermannsburg School [http://www.hermannsburgschool.com/?history]
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