Burnings

Posted by on Jan 14, 2020 in Comment | 2 comments

Burnings

In early December 2019 we visited Mallacoota, a small remote coastal town midway between Sydney and Melbourne on the entrance shore of an extensive inlet. Surrounded by national park, it is simply magnificent. It was a brief visit. Soon after, on the last day of the year and along with much of North-east Victoria, Mallacoota burned.  Since September last year, Australia has burned to an extent unprecedented in its recorded history. It is reported that more than ten million...

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Riverbending

Posted by on Nov 22, 2019 in Nolan | 1 comment

This is a work of the imagination written for Imagining in Excited Reverie, a 2017 Centenary tribute to Sidney Nolan. Riverbending takes the form of an imaginary text supposedly written by Nolan himself and not found among his papers after his death in 1992. Whilst obviously a work of fiction as to the words used and some opinions held, it is nevertheless largely based on fact and on Nolan’s own statements.1 After publication, plaudits received from Nolan...

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Nolan’s Adelaide ladies: from English soil and Adelaide

Posted by on Nov 28, 2018 in Nolan | 0 comments

In 1964 Sidney Nolan painted at least 59 large portrait style works, known generically as the Adelaide Ladies. In 2016, friend and fellow Nolan enthusiast Andrew Turley wrote and published A guide to the ladies: 59 works by Sidney Nolan – April 1964 to June 1964 which documents his research into this little known area of Nolan’s oeuvre.   The Foreword, Introduction and Epilogue to Andrew’s book can be read here. This post reproduces the...

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Adelaide ladies

Posted by on Nov 22, 2018 in Nolan | 0 comments

In 2016, friend and fellow Nolan enthusiast Andrew Turley wrote and published A guide to the ladies: 59 works by Sidney Nolan – April 1964 to June 1964 which documents his research into the so-called “Adelaide Ladies”, a little known area of Nolan’s oeuvre. Andrew’s comments about these paintings on the recent ABC film documentary Nolan has sparked an interest in them and a call for more information, which this website is pleased to provide. This posting on...

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Parables of Sunlight: Sidney Nolan – the Religious, the Sublime and the Divine in his painting

Posted by on Aug 2, 2018 in Nolan | 1 comment

This is a transcript of a lecture given by David Rainey on 25 July 2018 at the Anglican church of St. Mary-in-the-Valley, Canberra. It  includes full references not given in the presentation. Nolan’s own words are frequently quoted and in this transcript are shown in bold. Please NOTE that the text remains as spoken and consequently follows, rather than precedes, the image to which it relates. Good evening all. Thank you for coming out on such a cold night – especially those of...

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Ned and Sid, Sublime at AGWA

Posted by on Aug 2, 2018 in Nolan | 0 comments

David Rainey’s preview of the upcoming exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia of Sidney Nolan’s 26 Ned Kelly paintings from The National Gallery of Australia, has been written especially for SeeSaw, the Perth-based Arts Alert, Preview and Review website https://www.seesawmag.com.au Ned and Sid, Sublime at AGWA Ned Kelly is visiting the Art Gallery of Western Australia; or to be more precise, twenty six Kelly-themed paintings are making their first visit to the...

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Scabby Days

Posted by on Oct 31, 2017 in Comment | 1 comment

Mt Scabby, at 1790m among the highest of ACT peaks, lies on the border with New South Wales in a remote region of the Namadgi and Kosciuszko National Parks. Less a peak than a flat U-shaped plateau, it is here the Cotter River begins to flow – its three dams supplying Canberra’s water.   A long one day walk from vehicular access, another to return, Scabby receives relatively few visitors. The effort though has its rewards – like the occasion two wedge tail eagles circled in...

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Nolan Centenary Update IV

Posted by on Aug 17, 2017 in Nolan | 0 comments

What a pleasure to advise that a Nolan exhibition curated especially for his Centenary year, the first such in Australia, is about to open in MELBOURNE. Sidney Nolan: the Greek Series launches at the Hellenic Museum on 24 August 2017 and runs until 31 October. For more details check the website here. Another first, at least to my knowledge, is a recourse to crowdfunding which serves to highlight the parlous state of Arts funding. However it does give to all reading this, the opportunity to put...

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Auction of significant Nolan painting

Posted by on Aug 9, 2017 in Nolan | 0 comments

How many paintings in total did Nolan create? Estimates vary widely …. 10,000?  30,000? …. who knows, he was nothing if not prolific. Whatever the number, few 20th century ‘name’ painters likely sold more works from a gallery wall than did Sidney Nolan. The very first of these will go to auction in Melbourne tomorrow 10 August 2017. Remarkably, the fact that Lot 30 was Nolan’s first commercial sale is not mentioned in the Menzies catalogue. Swamp is one of twelve...

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aCOMMENT on Judith White’s “Culture Heist: Art versus Money”

Posted by on May 15, 2017 in Comment | 0 comments

I first saw a photo of the classical revival built courthouse in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland some years ago when researching the convict John Graham.1 Since then I’ve entered the Art Gallery of New South Wales many times without realising just how closely its portico and pediment resemble the facade of the imposing Dundalk Courthouse. This marked resemblance first struck me on seeing the ominous cover of Judith White’s book Culture Heist, just published by Brandl &...

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