Audrey and I went to visit Vincent Namatijira's exhibition at the National Gallery. Vincent Namatijra is Great-Grandson of renowned Australian watercolour artist Albert Namatijra and like his great grandfather has also taken up the paintbrush.
Unlike Albert's work (which tends to be beautiful, but classic) Australian landscapes, Vincent specialises in portraiture, and it was for this he won the Archibald Prize (an Australian portrait competition) in 2020.
His paintings are of a distinctive style - bright and bold colours painted with acrylic or watercolour. His paintings have been described as caricatures. Often he paints famous people alongside self portraits of himself standing as the artist. His paintings frequently reference Captain Cook, or the Royal Family.
One such painting was of mining magnet Gina Rinehart. Remarkably Rinehart took objection to his portrait of her and asked that the gallery take it down. This included (but never actually confirmed) sending members of the Australian swimming team (who she partially funds) to request the gallery remove it (I've no idea whether they intended to do it by force?)
Either way, both the gallery and Vincent Namitijira rebuffed her requests but the media storm that blew up as a result let to a huge focus both on his work as an artist and also the exhibition.
I must admit that without the focus it's unlikely that I'd have gone along. I knew of his work but I wasn't a big 'fan' but I'm so glad that the articles I read detailing Rinehart's protestations undoubtedly led to me and (probably several thousand others) going along.
What Audrey and I found though was that his paintings were so much more than just one controversial and (in my opinion) excellent painting. His work is impactful, funny but also with a message. Both Audrey and I really enjoyed it, particularly a room where you could create your own painting in the same style as the artist. It was a fun and interesting afternoon out!
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| The controversial portrait |
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| With Charles and Diana at Uluru |
