In a literal sense, an exhibition is just an array of objects. When that exhibition is devoted to a single artist, it’s their life, ambition and achievements that imbue those objects with cultural aura.

Sidney Nolan (1917–92) looms large in Nolan: Origins, the Art Gallery of NSW’s exploration of the Australian artist’s formative decades, spanning from the late 1930s until his departure for the United Kingdom in 1953.

In a wall-sized projection of filmed interviews, Nolan speaks of life, art and Australia in his characteristic manner: thoughtful, direct, quietly egocentric.

The way artists talk about their work has its own distinctive history. In my research, I’ve listened to hundreds of oral history interviews with Australian artists, tracing a long transition from the humble studio talk of last century’s veterans to the media savvy artists of today.

Always a good talker, Nolan became a seasoned interviewee in his maturity. As my ANU colleague Kate Warren recently demonstrated in her exhibition Public Impressions: Sidney Nolan in Popular Media, Nolan eagerly advocated modern art to a mass audience in the 1960s and 70s.

He delivered assertive takes on his interests, the direction Australian art should take and the happy coincidence of both in his........

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