Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Stanley Bard, New York, gift of the artist c.1966
The Stanley Bard Collection: Life at the Chelsea, Freeman's Auctions, Philadelphia, 16 May 2017, lot 34
Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED
Aspects of Australian Modernism, Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, 20 September - 10 November 2018


Like many of Sidney Nolan's views of the outback interior, Settlement, Central Australia is painted from an elevated perspective lending it a sense of vastness and remoteness that characterises Nolan's vision of the Australian outback. Between June and September of 1949 Nolan embarked on a journey through Central Australia - the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia with his new wife Cynthia, née Reed, and her daughter Jinx. The tour, which took three months, became the inspiration for his Central Australian series whilst also marking the beginning of his Burke and Wills series and their epic struggle for survival in the outback.

Cynthia Nolan also wrote a novel of the experience, simply titled 'Outback' and published in London in 1962, which describes the journey with considerable insight. Nolan took many photographs, especially from the aeroplanes they charted to the more remote communities. These photographs fused with the rich memory bank of images he stored in his mind, Nolan created a superb body of work which captured the isolation and expanse of the vast outback, rarely visited by Australians.

The present work was formerly in the collection of Stanley Bard, the proprietor of the Chelsea Hotel, New York, where Sidney and Cynthia had spent nearly five months living in a penthouse from December 1965 through to April the following year. The infamous 19th century hotel had long been a mecca for artists, actors, writers, and musicians. Most likely given by Nolan in lieu of rent, Bard amassed a serious collection of artworks, many of which were gifts from personal friends, tenants or guests including other notable artists Tom Wesselmann and Christo, as well as fellow Australian Brett Whiteley.

Nolan's sojourn in New York was rich in creative output. His time abroad was often spent paying homage to his Australian subjects, the physical distance strengthening his memory to offer a deeper connection. He had previously visited New York having been awarded the Harkness Fellowship in 1958, however this time was different. With his internationally acclaimed reputation on an upward trajectory and inspired by his surroundings, Nolan began tackling works on a grand scale with a number of vast, polyptych panelled works including Riverbend II, 1966 (The News Corporation Collection, New York) as well as Glenrowan, 1966 (in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh), and Desert Storm, 1966 (in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth). All were 9 panels in length, each oil on canvas measuring five foot by four foot suggesting perhaps the present work with it's township positioned in the upper right had been destined for an imposing multipaneled panorama.

Alex Clark