Sidney Nolan
Sir Sidney Robert Nolan (April 22, 1917 - 28 November, 1992) was one of Australia's best-known painters and printmakers.
Nolan was born in Melbourne and attended the National Gallery Art School. He was a close friend of 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, Arthur Boyd and John Perceval.
In 1938, Nolan married his first wife Elizabeth, but this soon broke up because of his increasing involvement with the Reeds.[1] 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 married John Reed's sister, Cynthia in 1948, after Sunday refused to leave her husband and marry him. In 1978, he married Mary Boyd, a member of the Boyd artistic dynasty and former wife of John Perceval.
He later studied at the Atelier 17, Paris, under the famous S. W. Hayter.
Nolan painted a wide range of personal interpretations of historical and legendary figures, including explorers Burke and Wills, and Eliza Fraser.
Probably his most famous work is a series of stylised descriptions of the bushranger Ned Kelly in the Australian Outback. Nolan left the famous 1946-47 series of 27 Ned Kellys at Heide, when he left it in emotionally-charged circumstances. Although he once wrote to Sunday Reed to tell her to take what she wanted, he subsequently demanded all his works back. Sunday Reed returned 284 other paintings and drawings to Nolan, but she refused to give up the 25 remaining Kellys, partly because she saw the works as fundamental to the proposed Heide Museum of Modern Art.[2] Eventually, she gave them to the National Gallery of Australia in 1977 and this resolved the dispute.
Paintings of Dimboola landscapes by Sidney Nolan, who was stationed in the area while on army duty in World War II, can be found in the National Gallery of Victoria.
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.
Nolan is less well known for his skilled theatrical set designs and book illustrations.
See also
References
- ^ Burke, Janine (January 2004). The Heart Garden: Sunday Reed and Heide. Milsons Point, New South Wales: Random House. p. 193. ISBN 1-74051-202-2.
- ^ Burke, 350