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November 11, 2007
The NSW Art Gallery has a retrospective Sidney Nolan exhibition. I've been ambivalent about Nolan. He is commonly judged to be a great Australian painter but I find a lot of his latter work slick and superficial, including the Kelly series.
Sidney Nolan, After Glenrowan, (second Ned Kelly series), 1955, enamel on hardboard,
Here we have Kelly rising up with demonic messianic force - the red eyes out of the ruins of the siege of Glenrowan. In this second Kelly series Nolan shows familiarity with contemporary European painting with the mainstream of abstraction making its presence felt in this entrenched figurative artist.
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Nothing bores me more than another bloody Nolan Ned Kelly. He should have stopped at one picture. He has some much more interesting pieces, particularly early on. The Kelly series turned into as bit of embarassment as it went on.