Sidney Nolan Biography

1917 born 22 April in Carlton, Melbourne
1917-31 the Nolan family move to St Kilda
1932-36 leaves school at 14; diverse employment includes commercial art; sporadic attendance at the Melbourne Gallery School
1938 meets John and Sunday Reed; becomes a foundation member of the Contemporary Art Society; marries Elizabeth Patterson
1940 first solo exhibition
1941 separates from his wife and moves to Heide, the Reeds home in Heidelberg
1942 conscripted into the army
1944 faced with the possibility of frontline duty in New Guinea, he goes absent without leave; lives mainly at Heide and shares a studio in Parkville
1945-47 completes first Ned Kelly paintings
1947-49 leaves Heide; marries John Reed's sister Cynthia Hansen; travels extensively through outback Australia; first aerial landscapes‚
1950-51 first visit to Europe: England, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy
1951-52 commissioned to record devastating drought in Queensland
1953 Nolan and family return to England ˆ he is based there for the rest of his career
1954 exhibits ten paintings at the Venice Biennale
1955-56 some months in Greece and travels to Gallipoli
1957 retrospective exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery, London
1958-60 Nolan travels to the USA as a Harkness Fellow; Leda and the Swan‚ series
1962 travels to Africa: Kenya and Ethiopia
1963 O.B.E. in New Year‚s Honours List
1964 visits Antarctica with Alan Moorehead
1965 Creative Fellowship in Canberra; travels to New Guinea, Pakistan and Nepal; first of several visits to China
1966 lives and works in New York for six months
1967 retrospective exhibition Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1968-72 completes multi-panel murals: Paradise Garden, Snake and Shark
1973 retrospective exhibition in Dublin
1976 death of Cynthia Nolan in November
1977 marries Mary Perceval (Boyd) in London
1981 made Knight Bachelor for Service to Art
1983 Order of Merit awarded by the Queen; purchases The Rodd in Herefordshire
1985 elected Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY
1987 major retrospective exhibition in Melbourne, NGV; then Sydney, Adelaide, Perth
1988 Companion Member of the Order of Australia
1991 elected a Royal Academician
1992 died 29 November