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October 2, 2026 \u2014 6:00am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n It\u2019s the art world equivalent of getting the band back together.<\/p>\n When the Art Gallery of NSW was preparing a new exhibition on Sidney Nolan\u2019s formative creative years, it already had his celebrated Ned Kelly painting First-Class Marksman<\/a>, having bought it for a record-breaking $5.4 million in 2010.<\/p>\n But the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra had the other 26 paintings in a series that is considered a national treasure, well known and loved enough to inspire a gang of letter-box Ned Kellys in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics and influence the most recent Australian film on the legendary bushranger, Justin Kurzel\u2019s True History of the Kelly Gang.<\/p>\n In an admirable display of co-operation the National Gallery has crated up its paintings and trucked them to Sydney so the full set \u2013 all the outlaws \u2013 can be exhibited together for the first time in almost 30 years, and the first time in Sydney for more than 60.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a nice reunion,\u201d the gallery\u2019s senior curator of Australian art, Denise Mimmocchi, said on a tour of the exhibition before it opens on Saturday. \u201cIt\u2019s given us the opportunity to not just reunite them with the missing painting but also show them in a slightly different context.\u201d<\/p>\n In a darkened room, the 27 vibrant paintings are presented in the order that Nolan preferred when they were originally exhibited in Melbourne in 1948 rather than the order in which they were painted. They seem almost like the storyboard for a wild new bushranger film.<\/p>\n \u201cNolan was deeply inspired by film and animation so there is something of a filmic quality to the sequence,\u201d Mimmocchi said. \u201cWe wanted to present them in that context.\u201d<\/p>\n The exhibition, Nolan: Origins<\/a>, includes more than 150 works from his intense output as a young artist from the late 1930s until he left Australia for the United Kingdom in 1953.<\/p>\n It shows how he went from modernist experimentation to a visionary who, with his landscapes, is credited with redefining a vision of the continent.<\/p>\n Nolan painted the Ned Kelly series after deserting from the army in 1944<\/a> and living under the assumed name Robin Murray.<\/p>\n Mimmocchi said the series attracted little attention when it was first exhibited in Australia and became celebrated only after arts patrons John and Sunday Reed showed it in Paris, Rome and London.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gained international exposure before coming back here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Elspeth Pitt, the National Gallery\u2019s senior curator of Australian art, described the Ned Kelly paintings as \u201csome of the best-known and best-loved works\u201d in Australian art.<\/p>\n Its 26 works were valued at about $150 million last year.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re key to the story of modernism in Australia,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re key also to the effort of artists in the 19th and 20th centuries to make myths around Australia and Australian identity,\u201d Pitt said.<\/p>\n While they are usually on permanent display in Canberra, \u201cwe appreciate the great significance of the exhibition, and the undertaking the Art Gallery of NSW has embarked on, so we really want to support them,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a fantastic show.\u201d<\/p>\n Kurzel said the Nolan paintings influenced his 2019 film True History of the Kelly Gang<\/a>, based on a Peter Carey novel, particularly a work that had the gang member Steve Hart wearing a dress.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was something really playful and kind of abandoned about his paintings and a sense of fun and colour, too,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re almost like paintings from a car spray garage \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cFor [them] to be painted in the \u201940s in Australia, they must have been pretty avant garde and extreme. But they still feel really fresh and new and bold.\u201d<\/p>\n So is there a quid pro quo for the National Gallery in lending the Nolan paintings? Does it want its Sydney counterpart to send First-Class Marksman to join the other 26 paintings when they are back in Canberra?<\/p>\n \u201cOh, that would be wonderful,\u201d Pitt said. \u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019ll discuss that at some stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Nolan: Origins opens at the Art Gallery of NSW<\/a> on Saturday, October 3. Director Justin Kurzel will speak after a screening of True History of the Kelly Gang<\/a> at the gallery the same day.<\/p>\n The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Denise](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/245e9ff05be4bc43db851db3073a719225e8b67e.jpeg\")
Denise Mimmocchi, senior curator of Australian art, with some of the Sidney Nolan paintings on display at the Art Gallery of NSW.Thomas Wielecki<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/d613501abf3b123ccee84dd11f472e7cd841b726.jpeg\")
The 27 Kelly paintings are displayed at the Art Gallery of NSW in the same order as first shown by Nolan in 1948.Thomas Wielecki<\/p>\n![\"Sidney](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/710df88a6e84f20c69f6fe4c129418dd2baac13e.jpeg\")
Sidney Nolan\u2019s Ned Kelly from 1946.The Sidney Nolan Trust<\/p>\n![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2f5b9d7a2554d153f48f17578b073c3f8121b5c4.jpeg\")
One of the painter\u2019s landscapes on show as part of Nolan: Origins at the Art Gallery of NSW.Thomas Wielecki<\/p>\n![\"Sidney](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/05a536419781ce587df9d500dfa19e73cf5976f8.jpeg\")
Sidney Nolan\u2019s The Trial from 1947.The Sidney Nolan Trust<\/p>\n