Prices for his artworks have topped $5 million, so how keen would you be for the chance to buy a genuine Sidney Nolan painting for less than $10,000?
The answer for many Australians is "very", according to Hobart gallery owner Michael Bugelli.
He has been showered with enquiries since the announcement of a new exhibition and sale of Nolan portraits opening in Hobart later this week.
"My phone has not stopped ringing and my emails have completely exploded with people from all over Australia wanting to get one of these portraits just because they are so accessible," Mr Bugelli said.
The paintings will each carry a price tag of $9,800, set by the estate of Sir Sidney Nolan's widow Lady Nolan, but Mr Bugelli said prospective buyers have to get to Hobart if they want to purchase one.
'Radical' portraits to surprise viewers
The paintings on display at the About Face exhibition at the Michael Bugelli Gallery might surprise those more familiar with Nolan's most famous works depicting 19th-century bushranger Ned Kelly.
The new exhibition showcases portraits painted in the 1980s using spray paint, influenced by the emerging street art Nolan saw around him when he lived in Wales.
"This is going to be quite radical for many viewers because it really does break with all our preconceptions of what Nolan was and almost how we perceive Nolan," said Mark Fraser, an agent for the estate of Lady Nolan.
"We think of him as an artist who was at his peak in the post-second-world-war period.
"But here we have him in 1982 painting with very radical spray paint, very much up with the fashions of the time."
Nolan made the artworks while living in a farmhouse with his second wife.
"He was at a very happy and content point of his life, and very keen to experiment, keep pushing new boundaries in his art," Mr Fraser said.
"He's also looking back over his long life and the many people he's met.
"Unfortunately in the case of these faces that we're exhibiting here in Hobart we don't know who the faces are, but it's quite obvious that there are certain faces that repeat again and again and almost haunt him.
Gallery director Michael Bugelli expects young audiences will be taken with the exhibition.
"The paintings themselves are incredibly contemporary, they look like they've been painted yesterday, it's really bright, vibrant and young," he said.
"The use of spray paint means the lines aren't defined and the faces aren't defined, so you can imagine quite a lot when you look at the paintings."
Still more to learn about Nolan
Mr Fraser says Nolan never stopped experimenting, often trying new techniques and media to avoid becoming repetitive.
"By the mid-80s he's using the very early computer programs — people have never really seen much of that — but he was actually using the paintbox program which had been invented in the mid-80s, very experimental," Mr Fraser said.
Mr Fraser said Lady Nolan's estate is planning future exhibitions of more never-before-seen Nolan works and scholars will soon be able to get their hands on more information about the artist.
"Academics, art historians haven't had access to any of his letters or diaries, and that's about to change in the next few years as those diaries and letters become available at the National Library in Canberra.
"So I think there'll be a lot of study coming up in the next decade and a lot more will be known about him."
About Face opens at the Michael Bugelli Gallery in Hobart on January 21, as part of the Mona Foma summer arts festival.
