A Hermannsburg Christmas

ReDot Fine Art Gallery hosts her first ever show by the community art centre of Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra, better known as Many Hands Arts, which has become famous for its production of sublime watercolours of the Australian outback in the style known as the “Hermannsburg School”. This continues the tradition of the great Arrernte artist, and possibly the most famous 20th century Australian watercolourist, Albert Namatjira.

Many Hands Arts started operating in 2004 as a non-for-profit making art centre and now boasts the support of over 300 artists as it tries to provide a platform for the development of Indigenous culture from its Alice Springs headquarters. Of these artists roughly 20 are practicing the new Hermannsburg School of painting – recreating some of the icon desert renditions made famous worldwide by Albert.

In a salon hang which promises to be a spectacular finale to the 2015 exhibition programme at ReDot Fine Art Gallery’s new Old Hill Street Police Station premises, ‘A Hermannsburg Christmas’ will be a collection of over 40 delicate watercolours, crafted by nine of the more senior artists of the cooperative, all direct family descendants of the great Albert Namatjira.

This is a must-see show for anyone interested in following the recent developments in Indigenous Art and an opportunity to better understand the work being produced by one of Australia’s finest community based Indigenous art projects.