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Sidney Nolan 1917-1992
Style
Narrative / figurative
Biography
Australian painter of great versatility whose imagery is often inspired by the folk history of his native Australia. Sidney Nolan was born in Melbourne. With little formal art training, Nolan turned to painting at 21 after varied experiences as a racing cyclist, cook, and gold miner. His early art works show the influences of Paul Klee and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and include the controversial abstract work Boy and the Moon (1940)-a splash of yellow against a raw blue background.
Although his early artworks were highly abstract in form, during the 1940s Sidney Nolan developed a brightly coloured, deliberately naive figurative style. He became particularly interested in representing the barren Australian landscape, as in Carron Plains (1948, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia), as well as stories of Australian folk heroes such as the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.
Although figurative painting was unfashionable throughout much of Sidney Nolan's career, his distinctive imagery and simple, expressive style was highly popular. He is undoubtedly the best-known Australian artist of the 20th century.
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Australian War Memorial, Canberra
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
Australian National University, Canberra
University Art Museum, University of Queensland
University of Western Australia, Perth
Nolan Gallery, 'Lanyon'
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
Performing Arts Museum, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne
Reserve Bank of Australia
The Holmes a Court Collection
ICI Collection
Westfarmers Collection, Perth
Tate Gallery, London
Hong Kong Land, Exchange Square, Hong Kong
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Private collections in Australia and overseas
Auction Record
$1,434,000 Ned Kelly - Outlaw, 1955
Awards
1958 Awarded a two year Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship
1963 Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to art in Britain
1965 Creative Arts Fellowship, Australian National University, Canberra
1968 Honorary Doctorate of Law, Australian National University, Canberra
1969 Britannica Australia Award for contributions to arts, science and humanities
1971 Honorary Doctorate of Literature, University of London
1974 Honorary Doctorate, Leeds University
1977 Honorary Doctorate of Letters, University of Sydney
1981 Knighted for services to art
1983 Order of Merit
1988 Companion of the Order of Australia
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