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Artist: Sidney Nolan (Australian, 1917-1992)
Australian modernist painter. Nolan attended the National Gallery of Victoria’s School of Art but was mostly influenced by books on Picasso, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse and the Surrealists. His first solo exhibition was in Melbourne. He was conscripted into the army (1942) and served two years in northwestern Victoria, where he painted landscape and figures. He deserted the army (1944) and began his painting series of Ned Kelly, which made the Kelly Gang made Ned Kelly iconic of Australian identity. He left Melbourne (1947) to paint historical series while trekking across Queensland, Fraser Island and Central Australia. He went to London, Greece and the US (1951) and designed for theatre and opera, including Samon et Dalila (1987), The Abduction from the Seraglio (1987), and II Trovatore (1983). He became an Associate Member of the Royal Academy of Arts (1987) and Companion of the Order of Australia (1988).