Rebel, rebel
It is thanks to his Ned Kelly series that the painter Sidney Nolan remains one of the best-known Australian artists. The first instalment – 27 paintings exploring the life of Oz’s bandit folk hero who stood up to English colonialists in the name of exploited Irish settlers – was created between 1946 and 1947.
Holy hell
Kelly, Spring, from 1956, however, belongs to Nolan’s subsequent interpretation of the outlaw who was to become a kind of alter ego for the artist. Kelly’s face is split in two: one half is an abstract painting, the other is human and Christ-like, with eyes closed in meditation or possibly death. The floral strip that hangs like a saint’s attribute from his head could be viewed as a nod to the wallpaper from the Glenrowan hotel where Kelly’s gang burned to death and he was captured, to be later hanged at the age of 25 in 1880.
My revolution
Created in England, where Nolan moved in 1951, its touchstones are European, including the failed Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule of 1956. Transcending the bushranger roots, Nolan’s Kelly here becomes a universal rebel.
Transferences: Sidney Nolan in Britain, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, to 4 Jun
