The Heritage of Namatjira: The Watercolourists of Central Australia (First edition)
Prior to joining Australian Government service, Jane worked on art history issues with colleagues at Flinders University in South Australia, and tapped into the generous and insightful people of Adelaide and Central Australia who knew indigenous Arrente artist Albert Namatjira as his beautiful watercolour artworks became world-famous in the 1950s. Namatjira in many ways laid the foundations for today’s renaissance in Australian Aboriginal art.
Jane Hardy, JVS Megaw and M Ruth Megaw (editors) 1992 (first edition) The Heritage of Namatjira: The Watercolourists of Central Australia, William Heinemann Australia, Port Melbourne
The Heritage of Namatjira is the first comprehensive survey of the massive output of watercolours by the Aranda (Arrernte) artists of Central Australia.
Twelve contributors -- anthropologists, historians, art critics and collectors -- review the history and stylistic development of the Hermannsburg watercolourists since the Finke River Mission's establishment in 1877, against a background of upheaval in Western Aranda culture. They chronicle the changing critical attitudes to the watercolours and their fluctuating fortunes in the art market, and assess the present role of the paintings within contemporary Aboriginal society.
With its wealth of illustrations (many previously unpublished), biographical and bibliographical information, The Heritage of Namatjira, which as been prepared with the full cooperation of the Aboriginal artists and communities concerned, will remain as a lasting tribute to more than a century of Western Aranda art and tradition.
