Swimmer 1967

Sidney Nolan's 'Swimmer' dives into a sea of turquoise, marked by bold gestures of red and charcoal. I can almost feel Nolan figuring it out as he went along, the image emerging through layers of intuition. Imagine Nolan, brush in hand, wrestling with the form, the colours, that vivid blue surface. What was he thinking as he made that splash of red dive downwards, like a bloody wound or an umbilical cord? Nolan, like so many of us painters, was probably caught in the act of trying to say something without quite knowing what it is yet! That swimmer figure is echoed by a shadow below, but is it a shadow or some other form of aquatic life? Painting lets us ask these questions. It's like a conversation, maybe Nolan was in conversation with Matisse’s swimmers, trading ideas across time. It’s a reminder that art doesn't have to give you all the answers. Sometimes, it's just there to keep the questions afloat.