VALE HUBERT PAREROULTJA, 1952 – 2O24

One of the great protagonists of the Hermannsburg School revival has passed on.

Hubert Pareroultja, the nephew of the great Otto Pareroultja, died last week.  We send our sincere condolences to his family and many friends.

Hubert lived his life happily on his lands at Ntaria, with his animals and stock, surrounded by the majesty of the West MacDonnell Ranges (Parta Tjurritja).

Hubert is and will always be renowned for his extraordinary orbital landscapes — the fisheye view of ancestral lands he had visited as a child with his Uncle Otto and the late master Albert Namatjira.  In later years, Hubert travelled back to these painting outposts to check on the Ancestor trees made famous 5O years prior by the leaders of the Hermannsburg School.

Hubert Pareroultja’s Country is at the heart of his painting practice.  He is an artist who paints what he sees, what he knows and what he feels, being his Country…His steady hand guides the brush through layered, translucent glazes of watercolour…There is a consummate understanding of the medium that allows every nuance of the landscape to be investigated. — Ken MacGregor, Hubert Pareroultja: When the rain tumbles down in July monograph, Badger Editions, Melbourne 2O24

Image: Hubert Pareroultja, Lukaria – West MacDonnell Ranges 2O17, watercolour on paper, 55cm diameter (image), 85 x 85 cm (framed). Provenance: Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands Art Centre, NT cat 632-17.