Sidney Nolan - Drought
Drought 1953
Ripolin enamel on masonite
Cynthia and Nolan returned from the Courier Mail sponsored trip through the drought ravaged north and central desert areas of Australia at the end of 1952 and Nolan set up a larger studio space in Wahroonga to make new work.
They had also recently returned from Nolan's first international trip and had visited Naples and Pompeii on the return voyage. There Nolan saw the casts of bodies of humans and animals who had been trapped after the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79.
Nolan described the series as it evolved to friend and fellow artist, Albert Tucker in a letter of March 1953:
The trip brought me in touch with the atmosphere of drought and this, added to the experiences of the previous trip that Cynthia and I made through the Northern Territory, has set me painting a big series of dead animals, the dried carcasses of horses, cattle, camels etc. It is a grim subject, but it has got me by the short hairs and I seem able to get a good deal of controlled tension into the paintings. I hope for an exhibition towards the end of the year.
God knows who will buy them. I can't honestly say they are drawing room paintings. "not done to decorate apartments" as Picasso would say - Sidney Nolan, 1953
Nolan need not have been so anxious. After a well-received exhibition of the whole series, leading interior designer Marion Hall Best selected one of the works for her display in the inaugural Society of Interior Designers exhibition in Woollahra that September and the concern for the land and the people affected by the drought that these works express, quickly resonated with contemporary Australians.
The Nolan Collection is managed by Canberra Museum and Gallery on behalf of the Australian Government
Sidney Nolan - Drought
Drought 1953
Ripolin enamel on masonite
Cynthia and Nolan returned from the Courier Mail sponsored trip through the drought ravaged north and central desert areas of Australia at the end of 1952 and Nolan set up a larger studio space in Wahroonga to make new work.
They had also recently returned from Nolan's first international trip and had visited Naples and Pompeii on the return voyage. There Nolan saw the casts of bodies of humans and animals who had been trapped after the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79.
Nolan described the series as it evolved to friend and fellow artist, Albert Tucker in a letter of March 1953:
The trip brought me in touch with the atmosphere of drought and this, added to the experiences of the previous trip that Cynthia and I made through the Northern Territory, has set me painting a big series of dead animals, the dried carcasses of horses, cattle, camels etc. It is a grim subject, but it has got me by the short hairs and I seem able to get a good deal of controlled tension into the paintings. I hope for an exhibition towards the end of the year.
God knows who will buy them. I can't honestly say they are drawing room paintings. "not done to decorate apartments" as Picasso would say - Sidney Nolan, 1953
Nolan need not have been so anxious. After a well-received exhibition of the whole series, leading interior designer Marion Hall Best selected one of the works for her display in the inaugural Society of Interior Designers exhibition in Woollahra that September and the concern for the land and the people affected by the drought that these works express, quickly resonated with contemporary Australians.
The Nolan Collection is managed by Canberra Museum and Gallery on behalf of the Australian Government