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Painting
Ripolin enamel on hardboard
89.7 x 121.5cm board; 111.6 x 142.2 x 6.5cm frame
Purchased 1978
207.1978
Art Gallery of NSW, Ground Level, Australian Art 20th Century Galleries, Court 3A
Further information
Nolan is one of Australia's most respected and internationally celebrated painters having travelled and exhibited extensively throughout the world during his long career. Largely self-taught by way of repeated visits to the State Library and Gino Nibbi's legendary book store in Melbourne, Nolan discovered the art of Miró, Klee and Picasso and immersed himself in the writings of Blake, Rimbaud, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and DH Lawrence.
Ned Kelly was an Australian folk hero many decades before Nolan took up his cause. Nolan's fascination with Kelly developed from stories told by his grandfather, a trooper who had hunted down the fugitive bushranger in 1880. 'The camp' is one of the original, seminal series of works depicting the life and deeds of this antipodean bandit, which Nolan painted at Sunday and John Reed's house 'Heide', in 1946-47.
'The camp' refers to the moment in the story of Kelly's exploits, just before his gang's ambush at Stringybark Creek in rural Victoria, where three policemen sent to apprehend the outlaws were killed. The bold division of the painting into two halves creates a powerful psychological tension: the calm landscape to the right is juxtaposed against an electric-blue area of paint, from which emerges the square, black, silhouetted figure of Kelly, wearing his beaten-iron armour and helmet.
Bibliography
Scholarly/Book; Great powers and outlaw states: unequal sovereigns in the International Legal Order; Gerry Simpson; 2004, front cover (colour illus., detail)
Book; Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales; Barry Pearce (Australia); 2000, 164, 176 (colour illus.), 301, 'Out of Melbourne: realisms and mythologies' by Natalie Wilson, pg. 163-164.
Educational kit; Aspects of Australian art; Ursula Prunster (Australia), Jonathan Cooper (Australia); 2000, (illus.), card no. 8: Sidney Nolan 'Self portrait' 1943
Periodical; Australian artist; Editor Unknown; Aug 2000, 4 (colour illus.), 'Australian Icons at the Art Gallery of New South Wales', pg, 4-5.
Newspaper; Daily telegraph; Editor Unknown; 22 Jul 2000, 124 (colour illus.), 'Master strokes' by Elizabeth Fortesque, pg. 124., Review of 'Australian Icons' exhibition.
Periodical; Look; Judith White (Australia); Oct 2000, 10 (colour illus.), 'Such is life' by Judith White, pg. 10., Article about a visit to the AGS by Peter Carey and the release of his new book 'True history of the Kelly Gang'.
General/Book; Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook; Bruce James (Australia), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940); 1999, 151 (colour illus.), 'Australian Collection: Painting and Sculpture' by Bruce James, pg. 102-181.
Exhibition catalogue; The Ned Kelly Paintings: Nolan at Heide 1946-47; Andrew Sayers; 1997, 51 (colour illus.), 77 (illus.), cat.no. 38
Educational/Book; Jacaranda Studies of Society and Environment; Jacaranda Wiley Ltd; 1996, cover
Educational kit; Art & the West; Terence Maloon (Australia), Ursula Prunster (Australia); 1987, (colour illus.), 'Crisis and renewal: World War II'., AUS 7 card.
Exhibition catalogue; Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981; Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874); 1981, 18, 19 (illus.), 'Australian Art' by Barry Pearce, pg. 5-26., cat.no. 27
Exhibition venue
Title: Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection
Organizer: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Venue: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Opening: 04 Aug 2000
Closing: 03 Dec 2000
Curator: Pearce, Barry
Title: The Ned Kelly Paintings: Nolan at "Heide" 1946-47
Organizer: Museum of Modern Art at Heide
Venue: Museum of Modern Art at Heide
Opening: 18 Mar 1997
Closing: 18 May 1997
Curator: Reeder, Warwick
Title: Three years on: Acquisitions 1978-81
Organizer: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Venue: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Opening: 15 Oct 1981
Closing: 01 Dec 1981
Notes: cat.no. 27
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