Kelly 1965

This is Sidney Nolan’s ‘Kelly’, and it’s interesting how Nolan constructs a way of seeing and experiencing the world through color and form. It’s like he’s saying, “Here’s a figure, but it’s also a feeling.” The texture here is remarkable. The way the inks sit on the surface, not quite flat, gives the image a real presence. Nolan uses the color to sculpt the face and body, but at the same time he reduces the face to a yellow glow behind the red square of the bushranger's helmet. It’s all surface, all feeling. There’s a raw, almost awkward quality, a pushing and pulling of tones and forms, that reminds me of Redon or Rouault, yet it is so clearly in dialogue with the landscape tradition of Australian painting. Like them, Nolan invites us to see not just with our eyes, but with our hearts. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation.