Untitled
(c. 1955)
Medium
watercolour over pencil
Measurements
39.4 × 58.6 cm (image and sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Darvell M. Hutchinson AM through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2022
© estate of the artist l Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd
Gallery location
Gallery 8
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
Otto Pareroultja belonged to the first generation of Hermannsburg watercolourists. Compared to many of his counterparts, including his artist brothers Edwin and Reuben, Pareroultja used bold, contrasting lines to emphasise geometric forms within the landscape. Pareroultja is thought to have placed importance on private, spiritual meanings in his paintings, in line with ancestral Aranda stories. For example, his frequent depictions of ghost gums with strong black-and-white markings are suggestive of rings painted on sacred poles in the Hermannsburg area, in harmony with Aranda Dreamings of ghost gums rising from the abandoned poles of travelling ancestors.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Hermannsburg, Northern Territory
Inscription
inscribed in black paint (in image) l.c.: Otto Pareroultj(…illeg.)
Accession Number
2022.254
Department
First Nations Australia