Sidney Nolan: Mask VIII

Sydney Nolan, Mask VIII

Biography:

Sidney Nolan is one of the most significant and celebrated figures in Australian art. His surrealistic depictions of the natural landscape and historical figures of Australia have helped shape the modern visual identity of Australia.

Nolan studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, and his early influences included European modernist painters such Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne, with further inspiration sourced from the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud.  He held his first exhibition shortly thereafter in 1940.

During this embryonic time in his career, Nolan was endowed with the support of art patrons Sunday and John Reed, having moved into the landmark and now historically significant property, owned by the Reeds, Heide.  Through them he met members of the Angry Penguins, a group of avant-garde artists including Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, John Perceval, and Arthur Boyd that sought to modernize Australian art.

It was during this time at Heide that Nolan produced possibly his most iconic suite of works, the Ned Kelly paintings, depicting tales of the iconic 19th-century Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.  The iconography inherent to the suite - Kelly wearing his box-like helmet - remains among the most recognisable images in the history of Australian painting.  Indeed, the majority of the suite are held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra).

In 1949 he travelled with his second wife Cynthia and her daughter Jinx to Central Australia, documenting the savage effects of the drought on the rural landscape.

Nolan’s Gallipoli series, comprising drawings and paintings completed over a 20-year period from 1955-1977was derivative of his trip to Gallipoli in 1955.

The expansive series comprises a suite or works devoted to what Nolan perceived as a new and unusual landscape; and another series focussing on soldier portraits, the latter of which was inspired by his interest in identity and the ravages of war.

Later series of works included themes on Leda and the Swan and Eliza Fraser of Fraser Island.

Sidney Nolan was knighted in 1981. He died in 1992.

Bibliography:

Murray Cree, L., & Drury, N., Australian Painting Now, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000

Sayers, Andrew, Australian Art, Oxford University Press, 2001

Hughes, Robert, The Art of Australia, Penguin Books, 1970

Haese, Richard, Rebels and Precursors, Penguin Books, 1988

Rosenthal’s ‘Sidney Nolan’ published by Thames and Hudson 2002

Further reading:

Clark, J., Sidney Nolan: Landscapes and Legends: A Retrospective Exhibition 1937-1987, Cambridge University Press, 1988

Morgan, K. & Harding, L., Modern Love: The Lives of John and Sunday Reed, Melbourne University Publishing, 2015

Smith, G., Sidney Nolan: Desert and Drought, National Gallery of Victoria, 2003

Adams, Brian, Sidney Nolan: Such is Life, Hutchinson of Australia, 1987

View: more works by Sidney Nolan at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, at the Tate, the extensive collection at National Gallery of Australia, and the equally in depth collections at the National Gallery of Victoria and Art Gallery of South Australia.

Learn more: from the Sidney Nolan Trust (UK)