Sidney Nolan
Sir Sidney Robert Nolan (April 22, 1917 - 28 November 1992) was one of
Australia's best-known painters.
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. 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.
Sidney Nolan. (2007, January 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Retrieved 07:55, February 2, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sidney_Nolan&oldid=102839227
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