Cnr London Circuit and City Square, Canberra City
Open today from 10am to 4pm
Wednesday 22 February 2023, 1-2pm
Free. Bookings essential.
Join curators Virginia Rigney (CMAG) and Dr Jennifer Gall (National Film and Sound Archives) in their talk about Alice Babidge’s costumes for Justin Kurzel’s film The True History of the Kelly Gang and parallels with Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly imagery.
Babidge used both vintage and contemporary fabrics to make this award-winning group of costumes and their use as disguise, but also about bonding, defiance, transgression, and celebration of political resistance.
In adapting his script for True History of the Kelly Gang from Peter Carey’s 2003 novel of the same name, Justin Kurzel expanded on Carey’s referencing of the practice in 19th century Irish political resistance, of men dressing as women. Sidney Nolan was also intrigued by this story and the foundation collection includes the work Steve Hart showing the gang member astride a horse wearing a floral dress. These dresses may have their foundations as a means of disguise, but unquestioningly they are also about bonding, defiance, transgression, and celebration.
Presented in association with the exhibition Matthew Thorne: Jingo was born in the Slum.
Image: Installation view featuring Dress for Steve Hart with the painting of the same name by Sidney Nolan behind. Costume kindly loaned by the National Film Sound Archive.
Wednesday 22 February 2023, 1-2pm
Free. Bookings essential.
The Nolan Collection is an iconic group of paintings from 1945 to 1953 by Sidney Nolan that the artist gifted to the nation in 1974
In August 1978, Sidney Nolan created a series of 31 crayon pastel drawings based on the events of Marcus Clarke’s 1874 convict novel, For the Term of His Natural Life.
A discussion about the changing perceptions and understandings of Australia's convict past and how museums deal with this confronting history.
The Young Nolan Project is a new initiative where an individual school is invited to work on an extended program and present their resulting art to the public