Not only is Sir Sidney Nolan one of Australia’s most significant modern artists but his oeuvre is among the most diverse and prolific in all modern art. Nolan’s art traversed media, technique, subject matter and visual language throughout a career over four decades long. However, what weaves together this large artistic output are the commonalities of his love of poetry, mythology and narrative, along with his knowledge and understanding of the natural world.
In the forthcoming Leonard Joel auction, Sidney Nolan – Narratives & the Natural World, the viewer will immediately recognise many of Nolan’s most iconic themes and motifs in the selection of works. One can see works hailing from all corners of Nolan’s oeuvre including of course the failed heroes from the Australian bush and Greek Tragedy. His passion for poetry and storytelling is evident in those works referencing Shakespeare, Baudelaire, and Lowell, and his deep connection to nature is expressed through the myriad of landscapes and animals present in his works.
Of course, tying these works together thematically is effortless given the nature of Nolan’s process of working in series, but the correlation that is truly unavoidable is the overwhelming expression of emotion captured in the works. This is at the heart of Nolan’s artistic practice and what makes each of his works feel so vital and immediate. As is captured so eloquently by the Sidney Nolan Trust, “emotions are laid out before you in a language that you can understand if you can slough off the skins of your own expectations.”
In Sidney Nolan – Narratives & the Natural World you will see the range of these emotions in Nolan’s work for yourself.
