Hubert Pareroultja : ‘When the Rain Tumbles Down in July’

Melbourne : Badger Editions, 2024. Quarto (318 x 254 mm), pictorial laminated boards; illustrated endpapers, pp. 204, extensively illustrated. Printed in a small edition of only 300 copies. New copy of a title not in commercial distribution. Text and photographs by Ken McGregor, designed and edited by Jenny Zimmer.

Hubert Pareroultja (1952 – 2024) was a Western Aranda artist renowned for his watercolour paintings of Tjoritja (the West Macdonnell Ranges). He follows in the tradition of his father Reuben Pareroultja and Uncles Otto and Edwin Pareroultja, all original members of the Hermannsburg School. His maternal uncle was Albert Namatjira. Pareroultja was winner of the prestigious Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney in 2020, and the Wanduk Marika 3D Award at the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, presented by the Museum Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in 2021. In this exquisite and richly illustrated book, McGregor describes Pareroultja’s childhood raised on the Hermannsburg Mission and the influence his elder painter relatives had on his upbringing. After a series of tragic incidents in his middle years, the artist found acclaim and recognition with his winning of some of Australia’s major art awards.

‘Albert Namatjira is the reason non-Indigenous Australians started to recognise the work of Aboriginal artists. His paintings have become synonymous with our vision of the Australian outback, and he must be credited with pioneering contemporary Indigenous art. Hubert Pareroultja has certainly continued this strong tradition’ – Ken McGregor.