• Sir Sidney Nolan by Michel Lawrence ©
    Everyone feels
    they know Nolan,
    but that is far
    from the truth.

NOLAN

NOLAN will tell the story of one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Australian artist of the 20th Century, Sir Sidney Nolan. It will chart Nolan’s life, allowing us to see him clearly through the camouflage for the first time. It will be a quest to understand this quixotic and world-renowned artist. His early years were key. Steeped in modernism, he was an innovative, playful, quicksilver talent. His art offered itself up to the viewer, seemingly as immediate and accessible as Damien Hirst’s shark. But it contained hidden meanings, reflected in the broken mirror of modernism. He was searching for new art forms, new myths, new stories. The kind of art that could shape the consciousness of a nation.


TEAM

WRITER & DIRECTOR: Sally Aitken
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sharyn Prentice / Julia Peters
ARCHIVE PRODUCER: Lavinia Riachi



Developed with the assistance of ABC, Film Victoria and Flaming Star Films



NOLAN

“The fact is that Sidney Nolan is a genius and a genius cannot do what he wants...
He is under orders. Genius comes from somewhere else.”Kenneth Clark
“Every word that Sidney says is camouflage. Everything he says goes off on a trail away from what he really believes, thinks, intends to do, has done in the past. He is like the bird dragging a wing, leading the hunter away from its young and nest.”Saul Steinberg