These works by Sidney Nolan have never been displayed. Now they're heading to Melbourne

Sydney Morning Herald

28-04-2025

'How can a disease be painted?' Sidney Nolan wrote these words in his diary in 1961, in the wake of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind behind the railway system that fed people to Auschwitz and the other Nazi death camps.
Nolan's attempts at answering this question form Aftershocks: Nolan and the Holocaust, a new exhibition at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.
Nolan, one of Australia's most renowned modernist painters, had been commissioned to illustrate an article about the Holocaust. He visited Auschwitz in 1962, but had such a visceral reaction to the place that he withdrew from the commission. Nevertheless, he went on to create over 200 paintings on the subject, most of which were filed away, not sold or exhibited.
Dr Breann Fallon, the Holocaust Museum's Head of Experience and Learning and co-curator of Aftershocks, speculates that Nolan couldn't bring himself to profit from the subject.
'They were never designed to be displayed,' says Fallon. 'Is it art-making, or is it a diary? We'll never know.'
Much of this work was exhibited at the Sydney Jewish Museum first, but it has been reconfigured for the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. Several are from private collections, and the series of paintings based on Ravensbrück women's camp have never been seen on public display.
The amount of work Nolan produced about the Holocaust may surprise people. The work in this show is less than a quarter of it.
'We entertained other names for the exhibition, and Obsessed was one of them,' says Fallon. 'People will be shocked to know this has been sitting in the background of his catalogue. He's so known for his Kelly series, and his desert works, but this is a different side to his psyche. I don't think you can look at any of his other works the same way after knowing he created this series.'