Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/sir-sidney-robert-nolan

Birth Place

Carlton, VIC, Australia

Biography

Sidney Nolan was born on 22 April 1917, the first of four children of a Melbourne tram driver, Sidney Nolan, and his wife Dora Sutherland. His parents were Australian born, but very aware of their Irish cultural heritage. Later that year the family moved to the seaside suburb of St Kilda, elements of which were later to feature in Nolan’s mature art.In 1932 Nolan left school at the standard leaving age of 14 and enrolled in design and crafts at Prahran Technical College. The next year he began working for Fayrefield Hats where he produced advertising and display stands. This technical work gave him an early introduction to spray paints and experimental use of materials. In 1934 he enrolled in evening classes at the National Gallery School and within a few years was making plein air paintings within the Victorian impressionist tradition. His interest in art and ideas led him on a more adventurous path. In 1938 he met the art patrons John and Sunday Reed and through his involvement with them became a founding member of Victoria’s Contemporary Art Society. The same year he married fellow art student, Elizabeth Paterson, the grand-daughter of the artist John Ford Paterson and moved to Ocean Grove near Barwon Heads. In 1939 Nolan saw the Herald Exhibition of English and European Contemporary Art, which introduced him to the art of 20th century Europe and radicalised his own approach to art. His first solo exhibition in 1940 was opened by John Reed. The same year Nolan’s daughter, Amelda, was born.The following year Nolan left his family to live with the Reeds at their home at Heide Park. He remained romantically involved with Sunday Reed until 1947 and she actively encouraged him to take a more experimental approach with his art. He began to use Ripolin enamel paint, material more commonly used by house painters. Its fluidity and rapid drying enabled him to freely experiment with different styles and to quickly paint more than one work at a time. He was drawn into the activities of the Reeds, Max Harris and the Angry Penguins group, and in 1944 painted a series of paintings in response to the poems of the bq). naivebq). poet, Ern Malley. After an issue of the Angry Penguins magazine celebrated the genius of Malley (with a cover illustration by Nolan) the poet was revealed to be a hoax concocted by two anti-modernist poets. The entry of Japan into World War II led to Australia conscripting soldiers for the first time in its history. Nolan was conscripted and posted to the Wimmera in rural Victoria. Two years later,faced with the possibility of being posted to New Guinea, he deserted the Army and took refuge with the Reeds at their Heide and Parkville homes. Living a fugitive life may have turned his mind to the circumstances of other fugitives from justice. Douglas Stewart’s radio play in verse, Ned Kelly, was broadcast in 1942, but Nolan never admitted Stewart as a possible source for his Ned Kelly series which emerged in the second half of the decade. These paintings remain his most memorable work and he continually returned to this subject matter throughout his career.In 1947 Nolan left Sunday Reed and her husband John to live with John’s sister Cynthia who was already establishing a reputation as a sensitive writer. They moved to Sydney where the new gallery director, Hal Missingham, was an active supporter of Nolan’s work. Their house at Wahroonga backed onto the property of the conservative artist Lionel Lindsay. When Lindsay observed Nolan’s practice of painting a row of paintings all at once he wrote to his friend Harold Wright, angrily denouncing Nolan as a charlatan. In 1948, he put his affairs in order, obtained a dishonourable discharge from the Army,and married Cynthia. The couple made several flights over outback Australia,and Nolan began his remarkable series of aerial paintings of the outback, where thin wiped layers of Ripolin are used to evoke the shapes of ragged mountains.In 1951 they left for Europe and in 1953 they settled permanently in London, but made frequent visits to other parts of Europe, Africa, Antarctica and often returned to Australia. The London base was essential to establishing Nolan’s British reputation. He was honoured with a survey exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1957, the same year as he created the set designs for the stage version of Douglas Stewart’s Ned Kelly play. He was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to the USA in 1959 and in 1963 was awarded an OBE for his services to art. Many retrospective exhibitions were to follow, including a 1967 exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a 1973 exhibition in Dublin and a 1987 national touring exhibition in Australia.Cynthia Nolan committed suicide on 23 November 1976. In 1978 Nolan married Mary Boyd Perceval, the widow of artist John Perceval and sister of his friend Arthur Boyd. The relative haste of this marriage caused a permanent rift with his former friend Patrick White, who attacked him in his memoir Flaws in the Glass. Nolan responded in paint.In 1981 he was made a Knight Bachelor for his services to art, and in 1983 they settled at Rodd Farm on the borders of Wales where he enjoyed the expansive landscape for the rest of his life. While he was honoured by Australian galleries with exhibitions in the later years, he was emotionally more committed to Britain and Ireland. In 1986, four years before his death, he gave fifty paintings to the people of Ireland. Writers: Joanna Mendelssohn Date written: 2011 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 22 April 1917

Summary

Sir Sidney Nolan, the son of a Melbourne tram driver, became one of Australia's most celebrated and honoured artists. His Ned Kelly series made him a household name. Working in several media and art forms - painting, drawing, printmaking, set design, murals, spray painting and collage - he created more than 10,000 individual works.

Gender

Male

Died

28-Nov-92

Age at death

75