Vincent Namatjira on South Australia's APY Lands creates powerful 2020 Archibald Prize Adam Goodes image
Vincent Namatjira's self-portrait with Adam Goodes, entitled Stand strong for who you are, that won won the 2020 Archibald Prize.
Image courtesy Art Gallery Of New South Wales
Vincent Namatjira, great grandson of acclaimed artist Albert Namatjira, became the first Indigenous Australian to win the $100,000 Archibald Prize in its 99-year history in 2020.
Namitjira learned to paint in South Australia’s Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, near the Northern Territory border, where he lived in Indulkana in South Australia’s north and worked at Aboriginal Iwantja Arts centre.
Namatjira was an Archibald finalist for the fourth consecutive year in 2020 (runnerup in 2018), with a double-portrait featuring himself alongside South Australian former Australian Football League player and 2014 Australian of the Year Adam Goodes, entitled Stand strong for who you are. Namatjira first met Goodes in 2018, when he visited Indulkana to promote Indigenous literacy.
But Namatjira had been a fan of the footballer since childhood: “When I was younger and growing up in the foster system in Perth, Indigenous footballers were like heroes to me. Goodesy is much more than a great footballer, though. He took a strong stand against racism and said: ‘Enough is enough’. I stand strong with you too, brother.”
In 2019, Vincent Namatjira won the Art Galley of South Australia’s $100,000 Ramsay art prize, with his painting Close contact. Painted on plywood, the double-sided Close contact featuredCaptain Cook on one side and a self portrait on the other. Being “fascinated” by people in power and their influence, Namatjira painted figures personally familiar to him or in politics. His work has been exhibited internationally at the ninth Asia Pacific triennial of contemporary art, the Art Basel in Miami Beach and the British Museum in London.
Born in Alice Springs in 1983, Namatjira spent his early childhood at Hermannsburg mission in the Northern Territory. After his mother died, he was raised in foster homes then moved back to the area as a young adult before settling in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands with his wife.
