Albert Namatjira Albert Namatjira Albert Namatjira (28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959), born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Arrernte-speaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. As a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation. Born and raised at the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission outside Alice Springs, Namatjira showed interest in art from an early age, but it was not until 1934 (aged 32), under the tutelage of Rex Battarbee, that he began to paint seriously. Namatjira's richly detailed, Western art-influenced watercolours of the outback departed significantly from the abstract designs
Albert Namatjira in Namatjira's watercolours were destroyed in an arson attack. The trees were in the process of being heritage-listed. Art writer Susan McCulloch called the attack an "appalling and a tragic act of cultural vandalism". A number of Albert Namatjira's descendants paint at the "Iltja Ntjarra - Many Hands" art centre in Alice Springs. 1st Kingston Sea Scouts, in Tasmania, has an 18ft wooden hulled patrol boat named "Namatjira". On 28 July 2017, Google commemorated Namatjira's 115th birthday with a featured Doodle for Australian users, acknowledging his substantial contributions to the art and culture of Australia. Albert Namatjira Albert Namatjira (28