Landscape and light - Sidney Nolan

Over the weekend I visited of the Australian modernist landscape painter Sidney Nolan at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. The exhibition is the first retrospective exhibition to be mounted since the artist’s death in 1992 and includes a selection of his most important masterpieces. The exhibition examines each critical period in the artist’s career and highlights the evolution of Nolan’s vision from its genesis in St Kilda during the late 1930s, to the United Kingdom half a century later when the artist finally released his passion for large-scale spray painted abstractions.

While many photography books advise to study the European master’s such as Rembrandt for lighting, I believe it is important to study the use of light by local master’s such as Sidney Nolan. While Sidney Nolan is best known for his iconic Ned Kelly Series (1946-47) he’s is also well known for his landscapes including the Wimmera, the Outback and Goulbourn river. One series in particular struck me.

The epicentre of the retrospective is the historic co-joining in two semi-circles of the multi-panel paintings Riverbend I 1964-65 and Riverbend II 1965-66. The paintings comprising nine panels each, are based on boyhood memories of holidays on the Goulburn River at Shepparton. Riverbend II was bought by Rupert Murdoch at a Christie's sale in London in 1993 for $1.02 million. It now hangs in the New York boardroom of Murdoch's News International headquarters and is on loan to the exhibition.

What struck me about the 11-metre-long series of lush river landscapes, in which the figures of Kelly and his police pursuers are overwhelmed by the wild and dense bush, was Nolan’s skill in depicting the the shimmer of pure pigments vibrating off each other in stripes and patches. Even Ned Kelly’s square head reminds me of the blue marker posts on the Murray. The paintings were a timely reminder to pay attention to the play of light and pigments of the trees within the forest when I am photographing up at the river this weekend. It was also a reminder to pay attention to local artists, not just photographers or overseas painters.