Artist 101: Sidney Nolan

Sidney Nolan (1917–1992) was one of Australia’s most influential modern artists. He broke ground with a lifelong dedication to curiosity and experimentation, which culminated in a prolific output that spanned media and subject matter. He is best known for his compelling depictions of bush life and the icons of Australian history, most notably his painting series dedicated to bushranger and outlaw, Ned Kelly.

Explore Nolan’s extraordinary life and enduring legacy in our upcoming auction Sidney Nolan: The Greek Series II, dedicated to the works he made in Greece between 1955–56 and considered one of the most influential periods of his life.

1. An unconventional education

Sidney Nolan was born in Melbourne in 1917 to humble beginnings. His parents, Sidney (a tram driver) and Dora were both Australians of Irish heritage. From 16 years old, young Nolan produced advertising stands and imagery for Fayrefield Hats and intermittently attended night classes at National Gallery of Victoria’s School of Art in 1938. Eager to break free from the conservative, colonial strictures of his upbringing, he was largely self-educated and forged his own path in art, devouring books on Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse and the Surrealists.

2. The Heide years

By 1938, Nolan was a regular visitor to Heide, the outer Melbourne farmhouse of art patrons John and Sunday Reed, from whom the artist received encouragement and support (the latter became Nolan’s lover and appeared as a muse in many of his paintings). Heide served as a meeting place for the avant-garde group the Angry Penguins—which included Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker and Joy Hester—named after the radical cultural journal. Nolan’s years at Heide (now the Heide Museum of Modern Art) were some of the most pivotal in his career and remain synonymous with his legacy.

3. Military service

Nolan was conscripted into the Australian army from 1942 to 1945, during which time he captured his north Victoria surroundings in his sketchbook. In an expressive style, he depicted the desolate desert landscapes of his native country, such as in the vibrant pastel work Dimboola, Wimmera, 1942. However, in 1944 he deserted the army and was declared an illegal absentee. Until 1948, Nolan was living in hiding to avoid military authorities. He painted extensively during this time, beginning his now-iconic series focusing on the enigmatic figure of Ned Kelly.

4. Ned Kelly

The story of Ned Kelly, an Irish-Australian outlaw and anti-hero, became a key source of inspiration for Nolan from 1945, and the subject of some of his best-known works. Kelly,who was hanged in 1880 for killing policemen, famously adorned his gang in makeshift suits of armour, disguised behind square helmets. These became recurring motifs in Nolan’s works, such as in the evocative oil painting Mask II, 1979, in which Kelly’s loosely rendered face floats within a rectangular box. Though a century apart, Nolan and Kelly shared intriguing commonalities: an Irish heritage, a life on the run, and an existence as a misunderstood hero. For Australians, Kelly became an unlikely symbol of love, betrayal, and injustice. For Nolan, these paintings were both a record of historical events, and a form of introspective self-portraiture.

5. Theatre

Nolan’s career-long engagement in stage design began in 1939 when he was commissioned to create a design for French ballet dancer Serge Lifar's reimagined iteration of Icare. After moving to Britain in 1951, where he would settle for the rest of his life, Nolan went on to create designs for leading operas and stage productions in London including Kenneth MacMillan's The Rite of Spring (1962) at the Royal Ballet and Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila at the Royal Opera House.

Lot 5. Sidney Nolan, Greek Priest, Hydra, 1956. Estimate AU$4,000 - 6,000

Lot 20. Sidney Nolan, Figure on the Beach, Greece, 1955-56. Estimate: AU$3,000 - 5,000

Lot 1. Sidney Nolan, Greek Warrior, 1955-1956. Estimate: AU$3,000 - 5,000

Lot 10. Sidney Nolan, Greek Warrior, 1956. Estimate: AU$3,000 - 5,000

Lot 3. Sidney Nolan, Faun, Greece, 1955-56. Estimate: AU$3,000 - 5,000

Lot 24. Sidney Nolan, Greek Head and Triskelion, 1956. Estimate: AU$3,000 - 5,000

Lot 2. Sidney Nolan, Hydra Landscape with Cactus, 1956. Estimate: AU$3,000 - 5,000

Lot 14. Sidney Nolan, Greek Priest, 1956. Estimate: AU$4,000 - 6,000

6. Unusual mediums

Although working prolifically as a painter and draughtsman, for the first decade of his career, Nolan made use of inexpensive or repurposed materials, such as scraps of board, hessian sacking, and photographic paper. He was a tireless experimenter, constantly sampling new media and techniques, from house paint to boot polish, monotype printmaking to enamelled jewellery, and during his later years, spray-painted portraiture. Informed by his background in commercial art, and combined with a desire to subvert traditional art practices, he produced distinctive images that went beyond the capacity of conventional approaches.

7. No defined style

Nolan never committed to a single subject or style and was consistent in his shape-shifting approach. Among the more recently discovered parts of his oeuvre are his Polaroid photographs, which made their public debut in 2021, and his long-concealed Auschwitz paintings, depicting the chilling horrors and human suffering of Nazi Germany, which haunted the artist for decades and were exhibited for the first time earlier this year. Despite his diverse output, there are common thematic threads in his work. His legacy is synonymous with Australian folklore, legends, myths and landscapes, all of which subtly alluded to the multifarious human condition. Rejecting realism, Nolan believed that art’s role was not to capture everyday existence but to convey expression. As he said, “I’m very interested, in fact, compelled and dedicated to transmitting emotions and I care for very little else.”

8. Traveller

Although he would ultimately settle in London, Nolan’s seemingly insatiable appetite for travel didn’t wane. As a young man, he ventured to Greece, Italy, Morocco, America and Antarctica, and later to China, Tahiti and Brazil. Despite these global experiences and relentless movement, Australia remained at the heart of his creative output. He travelled extensively across his homeland throughout his life – from tropical Queensland to Fraser Island and through Central Australia – often dressed in a Saville Row suit in later years, an eccentric choice of attire given the stifling climate.

9. Recognition

Nolan’s experimental approach to challenging the conservative art of post-war Australia saw him receive a number of international honours and awards during and after his lifetime. He was appointed a CBE in 1963, made a Knight Bachelor in 1981, and awarded the Order of Merit in 1983. He was later made a Companion of the Order of Australia, elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a member of The Royal Academy of Arts. In 1985, Nolan established the Sidney Nolan Trust at his rural Hertfordshire home. As well as maintaining the artist’s personal legacy, the charity continues to serve as an incubator for experimentation through education programmes and contemporary art exhibitions.

10. At auction

Works by Sidney Nolan make frequent appearances at auction, and often appear in Bonhams' Important Australian Art auctions. The artist’s varied and prolific output means his works are available in a wide range of subjects, mediums and price points. Our upcoming sale, Sidney Nolan: The Greek Series II, focuses on entry-level works aimed at first time collectors, with estimates ranging from AU$1,000 – AU$6,000.