Sidney nolan brief biography of benjamin hall

Sidney Nolan is one of Australia's greatest mid-to-late 20 th century painters. A self-styled renegade, Nolan drew on the legacies of European modernism, moving through Post-Impressionism , and Surrealism , to form his own inimitable take on his country's topography and folklore. Nolan announced himself as a force to be reckoned with via a series of landscapes that captured something of the humid and desolate force of the Western Australian Wimmera outback.

But it was his series of paintings reaching a career total of 27 on the infamous Australian outlaw, Ned Kelly, that brought him widespread international acclaim. Nolan also added portraiture to his canon, with his late-life self-portraits presenting the haunting image of a defiant artist battling deteriorating health. Author Nancy Underhill writes, "an exploration of Nolan reveals that he became his own myth manager, presenting himself as a recorder of Australian history.

Sidney nolan brief biography of benjamin hall: Everyone feels they know

Nolan's success shifted facts from history into its antithesis - myth ". This early career work, also known as Moonboy , was painted shortly after Nolan left Fayrefield Hat Factory where he had worked for five years as an illustrator and sign-writer. Having also attended night school at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Nolan would have been familiar with the words and images of some of the greats of European culture.

The painting is composed of just two color tones: a mustard-yellow elliptical shape set against a bluey black background. Wilson writes, the painting "has been likened to a lavatory seat; to the rising plume of debris thrust into the atmosphere following an atomic blast; the tree of life; and the emblematic Rising Sun Flag used by feudal warlords in Japan during the Edo period.

Readings of this deceptively unassuming image are numerous".