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Oracle of DelphiSidney Nolan: Australian icon
May 22nd 2006 07:17
I've never really been taken by Sidney Nolan's work. However, on a recent trip to Canberra I visited the National Gallery and was lucky enough to get a look at his famous 'Ned Kelly' series which I really enjoyed - apart from the iconic Australian subject matter the series has a laconic and irreverent tone that is also quintessentially Australian.
Here's a brief bio.
Sidney Nolan was born in Melbourne and attended the National Gallery Art School. He was close friend with the arts patrons John and Sunday Reed, and is regarded as one of the leading figures of the so-called "Heide Circle" that also included Albert Tucker, Joy Hester and Arthur Boyd. He joined the Angry Penguins in the 1940s.
After leaving the army during World War II, Nolan lived for some time at the Reed's home, "Heide" outside Melbourne (now the Heide Museum of Modern Art). Here he painted the first canvasses in his famous "Ned Kelly" series, reportedly with input from Sunday Reed. Nolan also conducted an open affair with Sunday Reed at this time although he subsequently married John Reed's sister, Cynthia, after Sunday refused to leave her husband and marry him. He later married Mary Boyd, a member of the Boyd artistic dynasty and former wife of John Perceval.
In 1950 Nolan moved to London, England, where he lived until his death. Nolan's treatment of his wife Cynthia led to a bitter and long-running public feud between Nolan and his former friend, writer Patrick White, that lasted until Nolan's death.
The Australian national gallery calls Sidney Nolan’s 1946–47 Ned Kelly series "one of the greatest sequences of Australian paintings of the 20th century: Nolan’s starkly simplified depiction of Kelly in his armour has become an iconic Australian image."
Nolan’s paintings follow the main sequence of the Kelly story. Yet Nolan did not intend the series to be an ‘authentic’ depiction of these events. Rather, these episodes became the setting for the artist’s meditations upon universal themes of injustice, love and betrayal.
The Kelly saga was also a way for Nolan to paint the Australian landscape in new ways, with the story giving meaning to the place. Above all, he considered that it was ‘a story arising out of the bush and ending in the bush’.
Here's a brief bio.
Sidney Nolan was born in Melbourne and attended the National Gallery Art School. He was close friend with the arts patrons John and Sunday Reed, and is regarded as one of the leading figures of the so-called "Heide Circle" that also included Albert Tucker, Joy Hester and Arthur Boyd. He joined the Angry Penguins in the 1940s.
After leaving the army during World War II, Nolan lived for some time at the Reed's home, "Heide" outside Melbourne (now the Heide Museum of Modern Art). Here he painted the first canvasses in his famous "Ned Kelly" series, reportedly with input from Sunday Reed. Nolan also conducted an open affair with Sunday Reed at this time although he subsequently married John Reed's sister, Cynthia, after Sunday refused to leave her husband and marry him. He later married Mary Boyd, a member of the Boyd artistic dynasty and former wife of John Perceval.
In 1950 Nolan moved to London, England, where he lived until his death. Nolan's treatment of his wife Cynthia led to a bitter and long-running public feud between Nolan and his former friend, writer Patrick White, that lasted until Nolan's death.
Sidney Nolan, Ned Kelly 1946, enamel on composition board
The Australian national gallery calls Sidney Nolan’s 1946–47 Ned Kelly series "one of the greatest sequences of Australian paintings of the 20th century: Nolan’s starkly simplified depiction of Kelly in his armour has become an iconic Australian image."
Nolan’s paintings follow the main sequence of the Kelly story. Yet Nolan did not intend the series to be an ‘authentic’ depiction of these events. Rather, these episodes became the setting for the artist’s meditations upon universal themes of injustice, love and betrayal.
The Kelly saga was also a way for Nolan to paint the Australian landscape in new ways, with the story giving meaning to the place. Above all, he considered that it was ‘a story arising out of the bush and ending in the bush’.
Sidney Nolan, Ned Kelly on Trial 1946, Oil on Enamel
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Comment by amy