Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Sir Sidney Nolan, United Kingdom, until 1992
Lady Nolan, United Kingdom, until 2016
The Estate of Lady Nolan, United Kingdom

EXHIBITED
Sidney Nolan, Sheffield's Newsagency, Heidelberg, Melbourne, July 1942
Making History: Nolan at the Newsagent, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 18 November 2017-20 May 2018

LITERATURE
Making History: Nolan at the Newsagent, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2017, pp. 2, 5, 12 (illus. front cover)

VERSO
St Kilda, 1942
initialled, dated and inscribed: 'N / April 8th 1942' (unsighted)
oil on canvas sacking
40.0 x 46.0cm (15 3/4 x 18 1/8in).


On 31 July 1942, a fortnight after Nolan's exhibition opened in the window of Sheffield's newsagents John Reed wrote a short piece in the local newspaper:

'All who have walked down Burgundy Street, Heidelberg, in the last two weeks have stopped in front of Sheffield's shop windows, the eye caught by the fresh colour of the paintings of Sidney Nolan. You may have thought they were very unusual, and perhaps not at all like other paintings you know, and may even have heard someone say (as I did) that some of them looked like children's paintings. You must not let it worry you if the paintings are not 'like' familiar objects. He has no impulse to do so, and I think it will help if you will just look on these paintings as lovely combinations of colour and form. Then, when they have become more familiar, you will recognise them as the significant, creative, artistic achievements which they really are.'1

1. John Reed, 'Paintings in Sheffield's windows', The News, Heidelberg, 31 July 1942