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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  24 Aug 2021 ~ 6pm (AEST)
• Lot #:
  70
• Lot Description:
  Sidney Nolan
  (1917-1992)
  Head (Asmara ANZAC), 1963
  oil on composition board
  122.0 x 91.0cm (48 1/16 x 35 13/16in).
  initialled lower centre: 'N'; signed and dated verso: '1/1/63 / Nolan'
• Provenance:
  Collection of the artist; Robert Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green; Waddington Gallery, London (label attached verso); Private collection, Melbourne
• Exhibited:
  possibly Waddington Gallery, London, (label attached verso)
• References:
  Cynthia Nolan, One Traveller's Africa, Methuen & Co Ltd, London, 1965, p. 50 (illus. and front cover); T. G. Rosenthal, Sidney Nolan, Thames & Hudson, London 2002, p. 243 (illus.)
• Notes:
  Sidney Nolan worked into his African series by first painting faces and heads. There were three distinct groups - each defined by palette, paint, style, geography and idea. Seven 'Heads' were shaped by Ethiopia, among which he hid references to explorer Eric Shipton and an ANZAC soldier. In late October 1962 Sidney and wife Cynthia bumped and rattled their way over uneven roads exploring the Ethiopian cities of Addis, Asmara and Axum. Asmara was the capital of Eritrea, fighting for independence from Ethiopia, and the most northern point of their African journey. They stayed in a hotel room with a small balcony and together would stand looking across the four main streets converging on the city centre. Each day a clamour would rise from below. There were shops selling handbags, hats and coats of lion, zebra and leopard skin while the footpaths were filled with bustling locals, beggars huddled in groups and children chanting on street corners. Months later, back in a cold, grey London, Sidney would remember those northern lands and capture Cynthia's detailed recollections of a people whose skin "glowed with a golden sheen when it was in the sunlight" and "Byzantine faces" of symmetry, softness and spirituality. Sidney and Cynthia left their room, taking to Asmara's streets. Threading the crowds they found markets baking in the sun. Dried grasses woven into baskets, clay fired into jars and shoes and sandals of stiff, dry leather laid out in ranks, protecting rough woven rugs on the dusty ground. Further on they came to a square of stone pillars and shade. On one side the spice markets, on the other slender Ethiopians bent over noisy, spinning sewing machines. Among all this movement, Sidney was suddenly deathly still. Two Ethiopian soldiers had stepped out "dressed exactly, he said like the Australian 6th Division", his camera started firing, "look at the white gaiters, at the Gallipoli hats — well I can see what I have to do now". And so he did. Chosen for the cover of Cynthia's 1965 book 'One Traveller's Africa', Sidney's 'Asmara ANZAC' is often mistakenly assumed to be a European 'explorer', but the honey-coloured face is Ethiopian, the hat of white primer a slouch hat, and the atmospheric shadows a blue-green a memory of Asmara's market square. At first glance the style could easily be mistaken for caricature rather than character. One critic called his evolution of Ethiopian heads 'bird-like' and after Sidney's opening faces of rough, scruff and scratch that description of gentler, washed and rubbed features is understandable. But his faces from Ethiopia were the first of the African series to have that "fluid and unsubstantial" paint quality Sidney later explained as "This feeling of transience. This is the sense of melancholy". His ANZACs had always brought forth a sense of melancholy and the same feeling would seep into many of the African works that followed. Andrew Turley This extract has been adapted from Andrew's forthcoming publication 'Nolan's Africa'. He is also author of 'A day-by-day guide to the Adelaide Ladies' and appeared in 'Nolan: The Man and The Myth' aired by the BBC (UK) and ABC.
• Estimate:
  A$40,000 - 60,000
• 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.