Kumantjai H. Tjapaltjarri Pareroultja Estate 1952-2024

Language: Luritja
Lived and worked in Hermannsburg

Winner of the prestigious 2020 Wynne prize for landscape painting at the Art Gallery of NSW, Kumantjai H. Tjapaltjarri Pareroultja was one of the custodians of his uncle Albert Namatjira’s vision of the West MacDonnell Ranges. He lived in the country, surrounded by the white gums and grass trees with the sounds of black cockatoos echoing through the air.

His vision of the evocative landscape was accentuated with his unique ability to capture the subtleties of light as it bounces off the ancient iron stone. Colour and composition are monumentalised in his vast canvases.

The acknowledgment of the cross-cultural methodology—a western watercolour technique enthused with the understanding and sensitivity of a traditional custodian of the land—is an important step in the ongoing discourse of what makes contemporary Australia.