Sidney Nolan
Australian artist (1917-1992) · Australia · On the map · Artists · Died at 75
Sir Sidney Robert Nolan was one of the leading Australian artists of the 20th century. Working in a wide variety of media, his oeuvre is among the most diverse and prolific in all of modern art.
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Heide I, where Nolan painted the majority of his early Ned Kelly works![In 1952, Nolan documented the effects of drought in outback Queensland. His photographs of desiccated animals were a catalyst for his later drought paintings.[15]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Sidney_Nolan_Calf_Carcass.jpg/500px-Sidney_Nolan_Calf_Carcass.jpg)
In 1952, Nolan documented the effects of drought in outback Queensland. His photographs of desiccated animals were a catalyst for his later drought paintings.[15]
Grave of Sidney Nolan in Highgate Cemetery
The Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania, was built to accommodate Nolan's Snake (1970-72), a giant Rainbow Serpent mural made of 1,620 individual paintings.
Detail of the three-dimensional frieze at the base of the Nolan apartment building in Docklands, Melbourne, inspired by Nolan's abstracted depiction of Ned Kelly's helmet and the Australian landscapeAwards
About this person
He is best known for his series of paintings on legends from Australian history, most famously that of Ned Kelly, the bushranger and outlaw. Nolan's stylised depiction of Kelly's armour has become an icon of Australian art.
