Sidney Nolan

Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne
Important Australian Paintings, Deutscher-Menzies, Melbourne, 29 - 30 November 2000, lot 41
Private collection, United Kingdom; purchased from the above

Sidney Nolan: 102 works from the first fifteen years (1939-1953) Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 25 July - 7 August 1979, cat. 23 

Good condition. Has been cleaned and re-varnished. Vertical fold in original support, discernible right centre.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

St Kilda Pier is a gifted essay in the awkward, deliberately recreating the naivety, directness and simplicity of child art. Painted by an Australian whose creative gifts are praised internationally, why did Sidney Nolan adopt the naïve-perspective at odds, colours largely primary, forms stark, the application of paint rough? There is also the ill at ease with which the red-rooved building sits on the rail of the cast iron balcony. Yet it all works with a command that speaks of the natural artist. Nolan spent a carefree childhood in St Kilda, the beach being his 'university, gymnasium, everything combined.'¹ After he left the army in 1944, Nolan recalls, 'like a lot of others, I tried to recapture things, to see things again, to re-experience them.'²  From his boyhood onwards, Nolan loved the beach. His St Kilda paintings of 1945 are, to some extent, a recollection of things from his youth - of how small they now all seem, and other shocks that revisiting brings -  realised in paint in a child-like manner. His St Kilda paintings of 1945 celebrate the beaches, swimming, the Palais de Danse, the fun of Luna Park, the ferris wheel, big dipper, and the Giggle Palace on the Esplanade. They are characterised by flat areas of paint and strong colours, each expressing the youthful joy and freedom of summer on the beach, especially those 1945 bathers paintings, which capture so well the mood of his active youth.

1. Sidney Nolan, 'Down Under on a visit', Queen (London), 15 May 1962, quoted in Jane Clark, Sidney Nolan Landscapes & Legends, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 1987, p. 61
2. Elwyn Lynn, Sidney Nolan - Australia, Sydney: Bay Books, 1979, p.48, quoted in Clark, op. cit., p. 62