Hubert Pareroultja, 2022. Image courtesy of Ken McGregor.
Hubert Pareroultja (1953 - 2024) was a senior Western Arrernte-Luritja man who lived in his homeland, Kulpitharra / Luntharra outstation, west of Hermannsburg (Ntaria).
Winner of the 2020 Wynne prize for landscape painting at the Art Gallery of NSW, Pareroultja was one of the custodians of his uncle Albert Namatjira’s vision of the West MacDonnell Ranges. He lived on country, surrounded by the white gums and grass trees with the sounds of black cockatoos echoing through the air. When Pareroultja was a young boy he watched the original Hermannsburg School watercolour artist, Albert Namatjira, his father and his uncles as they painted. Pareroultja painted many of the same locations that the Namatjira and the Pareroultja brothers painted, in particular, Hermannsburg, Mount Sonder/Rutjipma and the James Range. Pareroultja's vision of the evocative landscape was accentuated by his unique ability to capture the subtleties of light as it bounced off the ancient iron stone.