Revealing works made by iconic painter Sidney Nolan that document the Holocaust, and impacted the rest of his career.
As an artist, Sidney Nolan helped shaped the Australian consciousness through his images, from his stylised portraits of Ned Kelly to his bush landscapes. However, few know that Nolan was commissioned as an artist to cover the trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann in late 1961.
Eichmann was a pivotal architect in the design and implementation of the ‘Final Solution’, streamlining the transportation and industrialised extermination of Jews and other minorities via camps such as Auschwitz.
After the war he fled to Argentina, living under an assumed name. His identity was exposed in 1960, which led to his trial (11 April to 15 August 1961). The world was galvanised as they watched the trial on television.
Nolan was among them. He was living in London at the time, but little did he realise the impact that accepting this commission would have upon him.
A new exhibition at The Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) reveals this hidden chapter in his career – a powerful six weeks resulting in a few hundred drawings.
Shaken To His Core: The Untold Story Of Nolan’s Auschwitz comprises 50 of those Auschwitz artworks, never before seen in Australia or brought to the public eye.
Read the article by Gina Fairley in Arts Hub.