#53 Outback Landscapes - REX SULTAN JABANGARDI: ABORIGINAL ART: 35x102cm

Biography:

Rex’s grandfather, Sultan Mohammed of Kandahar, was one of the ‘Afghan Cameleers’, who worked on the ‘Overland Telegraph’ across Central Australia. With his own stud camels, he established a business at Marree, where his father, Abdul Summit Sultan was born.
His father met and married Rex’s mother who was from the Kaytetye Tribe of the Barrow Creek region, located just 300 km north of Alice Springs. Together they had 3 sons and 3 daughters in Alice Springs where they settled and schooled their children, being taught by the nuns at the Catholic Convent.

Rex knew he would become an artist when he was young. As a child, he considered Albert Namatjira his  idol, and would sit in the Todd Creek with him and his son Oscar and watch them paint. He was also inspired by his older brother, Reggie Sultan, who is an established artist. Reggie gave Rex his first watercolour paints and board. Rex was influenced by the local Arrernte artists and done his first painting at the age of 13.