Hermannsburg School

The Hermannsburg School is an art style of the Aborigines, which developed at the beginning of the 1930s in the mission of Hermannsburg. This art movement began 125 kilometers west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory in the cultural region of the Western Desert. Hermannsburg was founded by Lutheran missionaries in 1877. The best known representative of this art movement of the Aboriginal was Albert Namatjira.

Style of painting

The artistic expressions of living there for millennia Western Arrernte Aboriginal people was symbolically and their totems showed people and nature. The patterns that they used were parallel lines or had radial and circular shapes. This language has been visualized expressed in the sand, on rocks and in sacred objects.

As in 1934, at the Lutheran Mission of Hermannsburg Pastor FW Albrecht in an exhibition showed landscapes of their country of European artists Rex Battarbee and John Gardner, was among other Aboriginal especially Albert Namatjira encouraged and inspired to paint. This created the so-called school of painting of Hermannsburg. The painters of the Hermannsburg School worked with water color landscape images. This style of painting became popular and the works have been exhibited and sold at exhibitions in Melbourne, Adelaide and other cities.

Painter

The painter Albert Namatjira became the first Aboriginal Australian citizen with full rights for its notoriety and popularity. Other significant artists of this style are Wenten Rubuntja, Walter and Otto Ebatarinja Pareroultja. Today Hermannsburg is known for its pottery work, make Aboriginal women.