PROVENANCE
Pvt. John Schneider, acquired directly from the artist c.1943
thence by descent
Private collection, Melbourne

RELATED WORK
Alumba at Glen Helen, 1939 in Alison French, Seeing the Centre: The Art of Albert Namatjira 1902-1959, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002, p.128 (illus.)

As in (Palm Valley), c.1943, Namatjira's (Ghost Gum), c.1943 features a confined environment, this time of dense, geometric rock formations. The viewer is invited to study in great detail the gnarled and twisting limbs of the tree, its aged bark – as Alison French describes, these ghost gum paintings are as much portraits as they are landscapes.1

Namatjira employs "a common technique for creating the illusion of three-dimensional form on a flat surface. Parallel curved lines suggest the rounded contours of the curved trunk...Namatjira refined the convention...Shadows created by ridges formed in the bark that cover growth rings are a recurring motif, as is the dominant choice of the cropped format".2

Despite the starkly contrasting pallid form of the tree within its harsh and rough red landscape, Namatjira's gum tree is very much a part of it, its immense and ancient form rooted firmly to this place.

1. Alison French, Seeing the Centre: The Art of Albert Namatjira 1902-1959, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002, p.15
2. Ibid. pp.117-118

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- Aboriginal Art
- Australian Art

Albert Namatjira(circa 1902-1959)(Ghost Gum), c.1943

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Albert Namatjira
(circa 1902-1959)
(Ghost Gum), c.1943