Sidney Nolan 'Flower Study' 1969
Sir Sidney Nolan OM, AC, CBE, RA (Australian 1917-1992)
Flower Study 1969
Mixed media on paper
30.4 x 25.3cm (sheet size)
Signed, dated and annotated ‘6 / Dec 69 / Nolan’ verso
Provenance:
Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, Paintings & Watercolours sale, 9 December 2020, lot m2746
Private Collection U.K.
Christie's, London, Modern and Contemporary Australian and South African Art, 16 December 2008, lot 45
Private Collection U.K.
© The Sidney Nolan Trust
Nolan's small flower paintings executed in 1968 were the genesis for his most ambitious works. They were inspired by a visit to central Australia where he saw “flowers springing up […] after they had lain dormant in the sand for twenty years.” “The pitiless wasteland” he recalled “throws up this extraordinary garden -- like the Paradise Gardens of the Islamic peoples.” “Like Milton” he said “I would like to inhabit Paradise.” The series began with Flowers (1968) and Wildflowers (1970), the former constituting 58 panels, each composed of 6 individually framed sheets, making a total of 348 separate paintings.
These predate Nolan’s most ambitious sequences: Paradise Garden (1968-70), Snake (1970-72) and Shark (1972-73), known collectively as Oceania. In total Oceania comprises around 4,000 images each executed on white kaolin-coated gloss paper using a variety of media, including wax crayon, coloured dyes, Ripolin, oil and acrylic and a quick-drying gel. All three monumental works were exhibited together in Nolan's retrospective exhibition at the Royal Society, Dublin in 1973. A selection of images from Paradise Garden is also included in Nolan’s artist book Paradise Garden (1971) in which the images are accompanied by his poems responding to the complicated relationship with his early patrons, John and Sunday Reed.
Sir Sidney Nolan OM, AC, CBE, RA (Australian 1917-1992)
Flower Study 1969
Mixed media on paper
30.4 x 25.3cm (sheet size)
Signed, dated and annotated ‘6 / Dec 69 / Nolan’ verso
Provenance:
Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, Paintings & Watercolours sale, 9 December 2020, lot m2746
Private Collection U.K.
Christie's, London, Modern and Contemporary Australian and South African Art, 16 December 2008, lot 45
Private Collection U.K.
© The Sidney Nolan Trust
Nolan's small flower paintings executed in 1968 were the genesis for his most ambitious works. They were inspired by a visit to central Australia where he saw “flowers springing up […] after they had lain dormant in the sand for twenty years.” “The pitiless wasteland” he recalled “throws up this extraordinary garden -- like the Paradise Gardens of the Islamic peoples.” “Like Milton” he said “I would like to inhabit Paradise.” The series began with Flowers (1968) and Wildflowers (1970), the former constituting 58 panels, each composed of 6 individually framed sheets, making a total of 348 separate paintings.
These predate Nolan’s most ambitious sequences: Paradise Garden (1968-70), Snake (1970-72) and Shark (1972-73), known collectively as Oceania. In total Oceania comprises around 4,000 images each executed on white kaolin-coated gloss paper using a variety of media, including wax crayon, coloured dyes, Ripolin, oil and acrylic and a quick-drying gel. All three monumental works were exhibited together in Nolan's retrospective exhibition at the Royal Society, Dublin in 1973. A selection of images from Paradise Garden is also included in Nolan’s artist book Paradise Garden (1971) in which the images are accompanied by his poems responding to the complicated relationship with his early patrons, John and Sunday Reed.
Sir Sidney Nolan OM, AC, CBE, RA (Australian 1917-1992)
Flower Study 1969
Mixed media on paper
30.4 x 25.3cm (sheet size)
Signed, dated and annotated ‘6 / Dec 69 / Nolan’ verso
Provenance:
Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, Paintings & Watercolours sale, 9 December 2020, lot m2746
Private Collection U.K.
Christie's, London, Modern and Contemporary Australian and South African Art, 16 December 2008, lot 45
Private Collection U.K.
© The Sidney Nolan Trust
Nolan's small flower paintings executed in 1968 were the genesis for his most ambitious works. They were inspired by a visit to central Australia where he saw “flowers springing up […] after they had lain dormant in the sand for twenty years.” “The pitiless wasteland” he recalled “throws up this extraordinary garden -- like the Paradise Gardens of the Islamic peoples.” “Like Milton” he said “I would like to inhabit Paradise.” The series began with Flowers (1968) and Wildflowers (1970), the former constituting 58 panels, each composed of 6 individually framed sheets, making a total of 348 separate paintings.
These predate Nolan’s most ambitious sequences: Paradise Garden (1968-70), Snake (1970-72) and Shark (1972-73), known collectively as Oceania. In total Oceania comprises around 4,000 images each executed on white kaolin-coated gloss paper using a variety of media, including wax crayon, coloured dyes, Ripolin, oil and acrylic and a quick-drying gel. All three monumental works were exhibited together in Nolan's retrospective exhibition at the Royal Society, Dublin in 1973. A selection of images from Paradise Garden is also included in Nolan’s artist book Paradise Garden (1971) in which the images are accompanied by his poems responding to the complicated relationship with his early patrons, John and Sunday Reed.