Rare and major works by Sir Sidney Nolan (1917-1992)

Showing at Eva Breuer Art Dealer in April 2002 will be a remarkable exhibition by the late Sir Sidney Nolan, regarded by many as Australia's finest twentieth century painter.

This exhibition of fourteen major works and thirty works on paper vividly celebrates Nolan's rare achievement - technical facility and an original way of seeing combined with a rare communicative ability.

Two of the most compelling early canvas paintings are the Picassoesque Girl and Horse c.1940 and Angel and Tree 1941. The restricted palette, artless draughtsmanship and angelic imagery show the very original response to Chagall that characterised these paintings made around the time of the birth of Nolan‚s daughter Amelda in 1940.

Wimmera Landscape c.1943 is from that group of paintings which confirmed Nolan‚s position as a major Australian painter. With flattened picture planes and a bold but reduced palette, Nolan presented a new and powerful way of seeing of the Australian landscape.

Another highlight is a work from Nolan's first Ned Kelly series. In Robbed 1946 the naked sergeants Kennedy and McIntyre flee - after Kelly and his gang had surprised their police patrol while encamped near Stringybark Creek in 1878.

Rimbaud at Harar 1963 is a fine example of his paintings about the French poet. In 1962 Nolan travelled in the footsteps of his 'life-long hero', Rimbaud, who settled in Harar in 1880 and remained in Africa for eleven years in self imposed artistic exile as a merchant trader. In this depiction of Rimbaud, naked and alone in the shimmering African landscape, Nolan expresses the same outsider‚ quality he had seen in Ned Kelly.

The remarkable Glacier 1964 is part of a body of work produced after eight days Nolan spent in Antarctica in January 1964 as guest of the U.S. Navy Antarctic Support Force. During helicopter tours, Nolan recorded his impressions in watercolour on two hundred blank postcards, and later in a series of large oil paintings capturing the desolation of the Antarctic landscape.

The works on paper fall into several subjects - Ned Kelly, Leda and the swan, landscapes and animals, flowers and figures. There are many fine, rare works from the earlier years, especially the 1940s-60s, with a good representation of works from the 1960s.

Nolan made many works on the Leda theme in 1958-60, mostly while living in New York. Unlike the Kelly series in which the artist creates a myth, in the Leda works Nolan submerged the figures in his myths in their environment. In these lyrical, frequently erotic, transparent works on paper, Leda and the Swan engage in a sensuous dance, sometimes floating, other times submerged in water. Dexterously exploiting the qualities of ripolin, Nolan uses his scraping technique to create diaphanous layers.

On April 11 6 - 8pm, the exhibition will be opened by David Boyd, distinguished artist and brother-in-law of the late Nolan. Also present will be Tom Rosenthal ,author of the new Thames and Hudson monograph, who will be signing copies of his long-awaited book.

The exhibition continues until Tuesday 30 April and can be previewed from 28 March.