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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  22 Apr 2021 ~ 6.30pm (AEST)
• Lot #:
  80
• Lot Description:
  Sidney Nolan
  (1917-1992)
  Explorer (Blue Eyes), 1962
  oil on composition board
  121.5 x 91.0cm (47 13/16 x 35 13/16in).
  signed with initial lower right: 'N'
• Provenance:
  Sotheby's, Melbourne, 30 April 2002, lot 33; Savill Galleries, Sydney; Private collection, Sydney
• Exhibited:
  Australia' Most Wanted, Savill Galleries, Melbourne, 6 March - 3 April 2005, cat. 43 (illus.)
• Notes:
  An adapted extract from Andrew Turley's forthcoming book 'Nolan's Africa' in which this work is to be reproduced: "Inspiration is just the charge that gets you going. You paint, and various people you have known, things they have said and done, come to your mind". Sidney Nolan The Bulletin, 22nd December 1962, Five days before starting his African Heads. Six weeks before the Bulletin interview, and two months after arriving in Africa, Sidney and Cynthia Nolan's Land Drover was about to head south, toward the Ethiopian city of Axum. As they waited in the early morning light, Eric Shipton, the famous British climber, pulled himself into the passenger seat. Shipton had conquered the Himalayas, taken part in five assaults on Everest and given both Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary their start. But his real passion was for exploration. He had written: "As I studied the maps, one thing about them captured my imagination... across blank space was written one challenging word. Unexplored". From their first day together, Sidney and Shipton explored. They climbed a towering cliff on rawhide ropes to enter a mountain monastery, discovered relics in Axum's ancient cathedral built over pagan temples and walked with Cynthia over ground littered with fallen Egyptian stelae, where Shipton examined great blocks of carved basalt, pocketing chips for the British Museum. In her book Cynthia described his most startling physical trait. Piercing blue eyes. Returning to London in mid November 1962, Sidney would open his African paintings with 29 heads and figures, all dated from 27th December 1962 to 1st January 1963. There were three distinct groups, each defined by palette, paint, and experience. Among them he hid references to the poet William Blake, a Francis Bacon pope, an ANZAC soldier and the explorer Eric Shipton. Shipton echoed through at least two of the African 'Heads'. In this painting, with "blazing blue eyes" and titled "Explorer" the head closely resembles a famous photograph of Shipton in the Himalayas. He stares at the camera, jaw covered in stubble, hair dishevelled and hands grasping in front of him. The date it was completed is unknown, but it reflects the unique scrubby style of Nolan's early African heads, white primer forming part of the image, and the a distinct hand configuration that appears in at least other, held in the collection of the Sidney Nolan Trust and dated 27th December 1962.
• Estimate:
  A$50,000 - 70,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.