Title
Drought skeleton
1953
Artist
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Details
- Other Titles
- Carcass
Drought - Date
- 1953
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 90.5 x 121.0 cm board; 105.7 x 136.2 x 4.5 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated lower c., yellow/ochre oil "NOLAN/ 53/ .".
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the Nelson Meers Foundation 2002
- Location
- South Building, ground level, 20th-century galleries
- Accession number
- 229.2002
- Copyright
- © The Trustees of the Sidney Nolan Trust/DACS. Copyright Agency
- Artist information
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Sidney Nolan
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
In June 1952 Sidney Nolan travelled to the Northern Territory and Queensland, under commission from the Brisbane Courier-Mail, to record the effects of severe drought in the north of the continent. 'Drought skeleton', with its heat-seared bony remains, is one of a number of stark, uncompromising paintings created out of this harrowing experience.
Nolan’s approach was influenced by a recent visit to Italy where, during a visit to Pompeii, he had gained a similar sense of life suddenly suspended following the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. The contorted forms of animals and humans petrified in the ashes – of which he’d seen plaster casts in the Pompeii museum – bore strong similarities to the twisted, yet still life-like, limbs of carcasses that resulted from drought.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 7 exhibitions
Drought paintings by Sidney Nolan (1953), Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne, 23 Jun 1953 -
Sidney Nolan: exhibition of paintings (1953), David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, Sydney, 29 Jul 1953–15 Aug 1953
Fifty years of The Macquarie Galleries: the third decade 1945-1955, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 07 May 1975–26 May 1975
'You beaut country': a selection of Australian art 1940-2000, Agnew's, London, London, 03 Oct 2001–26 Oct 2001
Sidney Nolan: Desert and Drought, Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 06 Jun 2003–17 Aug 2003
Sidney Nolan (2007-2008), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 03 Nov 2007–03 Feb 2008
Sidney Nolan (2007-2008), Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 22 Feb 2008–18 May 2008
Sidney Nolan (2007-2008), Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 06 Jun 2008–31 Aug 2008
Critical Mass: The art of planetary health, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, 03 Oct 2020–06 Dec 2020
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Bibliography
Referenced in 31 publications
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Brian Adams, Sidney Nolan: such is life, Melbourne, 1987, 121-122. NOTE: General reference.
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Agnew's, London, 'You beaut country': a selection of Australian paintings 1940-2000, London, 2001, (colour illus.). cat.no. 8, titled 'Carcass', £28,000
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Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales annual report 2003 [for the year ended 30 June 2003], Sydney, 2003, 9, 14.
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Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales Annual Report 2004, Sydney, 2004, 19.
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Edmund Capon AM, OBE, Foundation Newsletter #2, Sydney, May 2003, (colour illus.).
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Christie's, Australia Pty. Ltd. (Compilator), Christie's Australia: Books. Works on paper & Australian paintings, Sydney, Apr 1991, 73 (colour illus.). lot no. 233A; titled 'Carcase' [sic]
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Jane Clark, Sidney Nolan - landscapes and legends: a retrospective exhibition 1937 - 1987, Sydney, 1987, 114. NOTE: General reference of Nolan's carcasses.
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Sarah Couper, Look, 'God is a drover: Death in the outback', pg. 30-31, Sydney, Nov 2014, 30 (colour illus.), 31.
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Laura Murray Cree (Editor), Art and Australia (Vol. 35, No. 3), Sydney, 1998, 320 (illus.). NOTE: Advertisement for AGNEW'S, London
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David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, Sidney Nolan: Exhibition of Queensland outback paintings, Sydney, 1949. possibly cat.no. 7; titled 'Drought'
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Michael Gawenda (Editor in Chief), Age, 'AGNSW's new Nolan room', pg. 6, Melbourne, 22 Dec 2004, 6.
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Paul Giles, The Planetary Clock: Antipodean Time and Spherical Postmodern Fictions, Oxford, 2021, 122 (colour illus.), 417. Fig.2.10
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Peter Hill, The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Mix 'n' match', pg. 18, Sydney, 15 Jan 2005-16 Jan 2005, 18. NOTE: Spectrum supplement of Saturday's edition.
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Alan McCulloch, Prisme de arts (No. 2), 'L'art contemporain en Australie', pg. 21-28, Paris, 15 Apr 1956, 23 (illus.). NOTE: titled 'Carcasse', dated 1952
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Giucio Montagna (Editor), La Fiamma, 'Sydney [sic] Nolan at the Art Gallery of NSW', pg. 18, Leichhardt, 22 Dec 2004, 18.
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Clare Morgan., The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Gallery sells off the family silver and strikes gold', Sydney, 21 Dec 2004, (colour illus.). NOTE: Image shows 'Drought skeleton' on display with Judith White, Nelson Meers, Sam Meers and Edmund Capon in front of work.
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Elwyn Lynn, Sidney Nolan - Australia, Sydney, 1979, 116. NOTE: Reference to another Nolan Carass painting.
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Barry Pearce, Frances Lindsay, Lou Klepac and Edmund Capon AM, OBE, Sidney Nolan, 'Drought, swamp, Kelly, Leda 1953-60', pg. 158-162, Sydney, 2007, 158, 160 (colour illus.), 235. cat.no. 66
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Barry Pearce, Look, 'Gift of three Nolans', pg. 11-12, Sydney, Jul 2003, 12 (colour illus.).
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Peter Bray Gallery, Drought paintings by Sidney Nolan, Melbourne, 1953. cat.no. 28; priced 150 guineas
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Krystyna Pollar., The Australian, 'Nolan the nation's "greatest painter"', Sydney, 19 Dec 2004. NOTE: This article also appeared in Melbourne's 'Herald Sun' and 'Daily telegraph', Adelaide's 'Advertiser' and Brisbane's 'Courier mail', on 19 December 2004.
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T.G. Rosenthal, Sidney Nolan, London, 2002, 130-133. NOTE: General reference of Nolan's carcasses.
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Arnold Shore, Australasian post, 'Dead stock isn't the dish for everyone', pg. 37, Melbourne, 16 Jul 1953, 37 (illus.). NOTE: titled 'Drought skeleton'
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Jill Skyes, Look, 'Doing justice to Nolan', pg. 8, Sydney, Mar 2005, 8 (illus.). NOTE: Nelson and Sam Meers and positioned infront of the painting.
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Sebastian Smee., The Australian, 'Gallery makes room for foundation's gift of Nolans', Sydney, 21 Dec 2004, (colour illus.).
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Geoffrey Smith, gallery: ngv members magazine, 'Sidney Nolan: Desert & Drought', pg 5-7, Melbourne, Jul 2003, 5-7. NOTE: General reference. Article relates to Desert & Drought exhibition held at the NGV in 2003.
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Geoffrey Smith, Sidney Nolan: desert & drought, 'Environment', pg. 92-100, Melbourne, 2003, 115 (colour illus.), 153. cat.no. 65
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Sotheby's Australia (Compilator), Sotheby's: Fine Australian and European Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Photographs and Sculpture, including the Hugh Jamieson collection of contemporary art, Melbourne, Apr 1997, (colour illus.). lot no. 271; titled 'Carcass'
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Dora Sweetapple, Architecture and arts, 'Sydney shows', pg. 36-37, Melbourne, Feb 1954, 36-37. NOTE: Review of Nolan David Jones' Art Gallery exhibition. Carass reproduced in another version.
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Jill Sykes, Look, 'Nolan's Australia', pg. 28-31, Sydney, Oct 2004, 30, 31 (colour illus.).
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Nolan: Everyone feels they know Nolan, but that is far from the truth, East Melbourne, 2018. DVD documentary
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