Sidney Nolan: Desert and Drought
Burke and Wills

Explorers, and in particular Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills who, with other members of the Victorian Exploring Expedition, died during their attempt to cross the Australian continent in 1861, remained uppermost in Sidney Nolan’s mind during his own extensive outback journey.

Nolan’s Burke and Wills series evolved simultaneously with his pure landscape subjects, however from May to June 1950, he completed his most ambitious and largest paintings on the theme. Nolan’s five definitive subjects that were shown in June 1950 under the heading, ‘Notes for the Burke and Wills Series’, are reunited for the first time in the present exhibition (cats. 37, 38, 39, 40, and 83).

In these and additional works in the series, Nolan combined his existing research from source material located in the Brisbane and Sydney state libraries with his most recent experiences of the desert landscape. By delving into the past, Nolan once again hoped ‘to find myths that explained the present’, and in this instance he considered the complex and paradoxical relationship that linked the European explorer and the Australian landscape.

Sidney NOLAN
(1917–92)
In Menindee 1950
oil and enamel paint on composition board
121.5 x 152.0 cm
Private collection
© Courtesy of Mary Nolan