Sidney Nolan takes as the flag bearer of his own social criticism Ned Kelly, the most terrible of Australian outlaws. In a first series of 27 paintings in 1946, his bad hero is dehumanized, with a surrealist head turned as a TV monitor that does not correspond to anything in the epic story of the bushranger but represents an extreme threat to the well thinking citizen of today.
Eighteen years go by. In Sydney on August 31 Sotheby's Australia sells Ned Kelly - Crossing bridge, oil on board 122 x 153 cm painted in November 1964, lot 17 estimated A $ 800K.
Ned Kelly has clearly lost the game. His morphology has become human but he is diving over a river. At the same height as him, his horse falls freely all four legs up in the air. This picture is not a victory of civilization against the brutal monster of the bush. The landscape is hostile in a great violence of brushstrokes and colors.
A painting from the same series showing Ned riding the horse in high flight over the landscape before the fall was sold for A $ 590K including premium by Menzies on June 23, 2016.
A similar atmosphere of apocalypse animates another oil titled River Bank painted three weeks earlier in the same size. The river separates two worlds. In the foreground a Lady Godiva on her mule is alone and wanders aimlessly. The background shows a burned city under a stifling sky.
River Bank was sold for A $ 1.65M including premium by Sotheby's Australia on May 10, 2016 over a lower estimate of A $ 600K.
unsold
Eighteen years go by. In Sydney on August 31 Sotheby's Australia sells Ned Kelly - Crossing bridge, oil on board 122 x 153 cm painted in November 1964, lot 17 estimated A $ 800K.
Ned Kelly has clearly lost the game. His morphology has become human but he is diving over a river. At the same height as him, his horse falls freely all four legs up in the air. This picture is not a victory of civilization against the brutal monster of the bush. The landscape is hostile in a great violence of brushstrokes and colors.
A painting from the same series showing Ned riding the horse in high flight over the landscape before the fall was sold for A $ 590K including premium by Menzies on June 23, 2016.
A similar atmosphere of apocalypse animates another oil titled River Bank painted three weeks earlier in the same size. The river separates two worlds. In the foreground a Lady Godiva on her mule is alone and wanders aimlessly. The background shows a burned city under a stifling sky.
River Bank was sold for A $ 1.65M including premium by Sotheby's Australia on May 10, 2016 over a lower estimate of A $ 600K.
unsold
#SidneyNolan #HowardArkley & more Australian artists take center stage in Aug https://t.co/7iFATNzpPA @SothebysAUST pic.twitter.com/ECM56GLONa
— Invaluable (@InvaluableLive) August 20, 2016
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