Rex Battarbee
Reginald Ernest Battarbee,
Early career
Rex Battarbee was born in
In Outback Australia
In 1928, Battarbee and fellow commercial artist John Gardner bought a T-model Ford which had been converted to a caravan and set out on a fifteen-month trip, painting in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Two years later they travelled to western New South Wales and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Their work appeared in successful exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney. On an expedition to South and Central Australia in 1932, they showed their paintings at the Hermannsburg Lutheran mission, on the Finke River, west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Returning to the area in 1934 to paint the Macdonnell and James ranges, Battarbee and Gardner again displayed their work at Hermannsburg—this time for the benefit of the Arrernte people. The representation of places familiar to the Indigenous people had great impact; among the viewers was Albert Namatjira, then known simply as Albert, who asked for materials in order to do his own painting.
With Albert Namatjira
Battarbee and Gardner's brightly coloured landscapes attracted notice in Melbourne art circles, and they became prolific exhibitors and writers about inland Australia; in 1934 Battarbee won a Victorian centenary art prize for watercolour. He undertook his third visit to Central Australia in 1936 and found Albert Namatjira still waiting for him at the mission. With the permission of the superintendent
Life in Alice Springs
About 1940, Battarbee moved permanently to Central Australia. He conducted classes for an expanding group of Aboriginal artists and arranged further exhibitions of Namatjira's paintings in the southern capitals. As the Hermannsburg school of watercolourists developed, Battarbee became its promoter and helped to regulate the supply and distribution of its works to art markets. He was a member (from 1943) and chairman (1951–1956) of the
The Battarbees lived at Alice Springs and opened an Aboriginal art gallery, Tmara-mara, in their home. Rex continued to paint and exhibit. In 1964–66 Bernice ran the Battarbee Centralian Arts gallery, Adelaide, while her husband was briefly a patient in the Repatriation General Hospital, Daw Park. Returning to Alice Springs, Battarbee was appointed an
Published works
- Battarbee, Rex (1951). Modern Australian Aboriginal Art. Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
- Battarbee, Rex and Bernice (1971). Modern Aboriginal Painting. Rigby, Adelaide.
Further reading
- Strehlow, T. G. H. (1956). Rex Battarbee. The Legend Press, Sydney.
Sources
- ^ Hall, V. C., Namatjira of the Aranda, Rigby Limited, Adelaide, 1962
- ^ Hardy, Jane, "Battarbee, Reginald Ernest (Rex) (1893–1973)," Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, Volume 13, (MUP), 1993
- ^ "National Memorial Ordinance 1928 Determination of Nomenclature Australian Capital Territory National Memorials Ordinance 1928 Determination of Nomenclature". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Periodic (National : 1977 - 2011). 31 August 1988. p. 9. Retrieved 9 January 2020.