Nolan’s documented admiration for Aboriginal Australians began in 1947 while travelling in Queensland.

Nolan observed that Aboriginal Australians ‘give you the key to the whole situation…In fact one feels (like) a barbarian at the gates’. How do we approach and understand these comments today? Curator and writer Dr Damian Smith will discuss Nolan’s photographs taken on these trips and reflect on their impact for his practice.

Image:
Sidney NOLAN, Man preparing to mount the saddled dry carcass of a horse, Queensland, 1952