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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.

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Sidney Nolan and Patrick White, Adelaide Arts Festival

Sidney Nolan and Patrick White, Adelaide Arts Festival

Sidney Nolan and Patrick White, Adelaide Arts Festival

Sidney Nolan and Patrick White, Adelaide Arts Festival, c. 1964 (printed 2015)

Robert McFarlane

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Artist and wife near Arthurs Seat, 1969

Through blue eyes

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2009

Works by Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan bring the desert, the misty seashore and the hot Monaro plains to exhibition Open Air: Portraits in the landscape.

Sidney Nolan, Western Australia

Cultural kaleidoscope

Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006

The complex connections between four creative Australians; Patrick White, Sidney Nolan, Robert Helpmann and Peter Sculthorpe.

Sidney Nolan and Robert Helpmann at Bonython Gallery, Adelaide Arts Festival

Sidney Nolan and Robert Helpmann at Bonython Gallery, Adelaide Arts Festival

Sidney Nolan and Robert Helpmann at Bonython Gallery, Adelaide Arts Festival

Sidney Nolan and Robert Helpmann at Bonython Gallery, Adelaide Arts Festival, c. 1964 (printed 2015)

Robert McFarlane

Portrait, inkjet print on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Self portrait

Nolan Heads

Previous exhibition, 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

Portrait 1

September - November 2001

The first edition of Portrait Magazine features an article on Sidney Nolan's portraiture by former Gallery Director, Andrew Sayers.

In the mirror: self portrait with Joy Hester

Inside Heide’s lives

It's Complicated

Happiness to heartache

Portrait 20

June - August 2006

This issue of Portrait Magazine features Dame Nellie Melba and Frances Alda, Leigh Bowery, Karin Catt, Sidney Nolan and more.

image not online

Howard Matthews

Part of the Melbourne intellectual avant-garde of the 1940s, Howard Matthews was a brilliant student.

1 portrait in the collection

In the mirror: self portrait with Joy Hester

Joy Hester

Joy Hester (1920-1960) was the only female member of the Angry Penguin movement, which included artists Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd.

1 portrait in the collection

image not online

Peter O'Shaughnessy, 1947

Howard Matthews

Portrait, oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999

Rudy Komon

Rudy Komon

Rudy Komon (1908-1982) was an art dealer and gallery director. After working as a journalist in Czechoslovakia, where he served with the Czech resistance during the war, he emigrated to Sydney and opened an antique store.

3 portraits in the collection

Self portrait

Adrian Lawlor

Adrian Lawlor, critic and artist, came to Australia from his native England at the age of about twenty.

2 portraits in the collection

Portrait of Tam Purves

Thomas Purves

Thomas Purves (1909-1969), known as Tam, founded the Australian Galleries in Smith Street, Collingwood, Melbourne with his wife Anne in 1956.

1 portrait in the collection

Self-portrait, 1981 Robert Mappelthorpe

The Possibilities of Portraiture

Previous exhibition, 1999

What does 'portraiture mean at the end of the 20th century? At the outset of building a national portrait collection it seems an appropriate question to investigate.

Rudy Komon

Rudy Komon

Rudy Komon

Rudy Komon, c. 1970

Portrait, type C photograph on paper

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program

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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 past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

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