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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian & International Art
• Sale Date:
  21 Nov 2016 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  13
• Lot Description:
  Sidney Nolan
  (1917-1992)
  (Boat and Facades, Italy), (circa 1950s)
  Ripolin enamel on board
  63.5 x 76 cm
  initialled lower left: N_
• Provenance:
  Collection of the artist; The Estate of Sir Sidney Nolan, Sotheby's, Melbourne, 16 September 2001, lot no. 8; The Eric & Jacquie Selwood Collection, Sydney
• References:
  T.G. Rosenthal, Sidney Nolan, Thames & Hudson, London, 2002, p. 175 (illustrated)
• Notes:
  In 1950 Sidney Nolan departed Australia for London and thereafter until his death in 1992 he divided his time between the UK and Australia, while also undertaking a remarkable amount of travel, including to the USA, Greece, Ireland, Turkey, Norway, Africa, Antarctica, New Zealand, China, Tahiti and Mexico. Travel provided Nolan with a constant source of inspiration for his prodigious output of paintings in which human drama is set against an extraordinary backdrop of various real and invented landscapes. Nolan's intellectual inquisitiveness and mercurial talent underpinned his commitment to adopting an experimental approach and taking chances as a painter. This attitude had been established while still at art school when he was absorbing poets, writers and philosophers such as S¿ren Kierkegaard who argued that 'existence is not just being there, but living passionately, choosing one's own existence and committing to a certain way of life.'1 In 1954 Sidney Nolan visited Italy for the third time, having previously been there in late 1950 and again on a stop-over in Naples on a voyage back to Australia. This time however, he met up with Albert Tucker in Rome where they held a joint exhibition. This was followed by three weeks in Venice in June where Nolan, together with William Dobell and Russell Drysdale, represented Australia at the Venice Biennale. This was the first occasion on which Australia had participated in the Biennale, and in addition to exhibiting, Nolan was also commissioner for the Australian exhibition, a role that he shared with Daryl Lindsay. Nolan's experience in Italy, his fascination with its history, religion and art, found expression in 1955 in a number of paintings featuring the Italian landscape with a superimposed crucifix bearing a palette-shaped face, that were a prelude to the second Kelly series of 1956-57 where Kelly has a calm Christ-like face. While the composition of Nolan's Boats and Facades, Italy, (circa 1950s) presents an amalgam of various architectural elements arranged in an almost checkerboard pattern, the scene most probably relates to his time spent in Venice in 1954 traversing the Grand Canal lined with colourful and richly decorated Palazzi. The composition however, with its fragmented elements of buildings, also relates back to an earlier work of Nolan's St Kilda period - St Kilda Pier (Dark Head) c.1944-45 (Private collection). It therefore has a direct connection to an earlier phase of Nolan's life. In this respect it is interesting that both St Kilda Pier (Dark Head) and Boats and Facades, Italy were retained by the artist and did not come onto the market until after his death. Frances Lindsay AM 1 Cited in Frances Lindsay, 'Sidney Nolan: the end of St. Kilda Pier', in Sidney Nolan 1917 - 1992, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2008, p.72
• Estimate:
  A$25,000 - 35,000
• 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.