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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Nolan Heads

Previous exhibition

from Friday 3 August until Sunday 30 September 2001

Nolan Heads will focus on the portraiture of one of Australia's most original painters and one of the few to have achieved an international reputation.

Self portrait, 1988 Sidney Nolan. © Sidney Nolan/Copyright Agency, 2021

The exhibition will span 50 years of Nolan's work, from his abstracted heads of the late 1930s to his last self-portrait, painted in 1988 - a painting as yet unseen in Australia. Also included: a series of 1947 portraits of friends and fellow artists, and the notorious painting of Patrick White, Nightmare, along with related drawings from the Dante series.

1 . Myself 1988 All by Sidney Nolan.

Related information

William Yang

Australian Chinese

Previous exhibition, 2001

William Yang's art is about the telling of stories, his work is an intriguing mixture of philosophy, autobiography, social history and documentary imbued with a sense of the artist's own curiosity, humanity and humour

Black Gold

The Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame

Previous exhibition, 2001

Reflecting the breadth and diversity of Aboriginal and Islander achievement within and beyond the world of sport, this exhibition tells the little known tales of triumph over adversity.