Yet Nolan did not simply happen across the story of Ned – his grandfather had been one of the policemen who pursued Kelly at Beechworth in the 1870s, and he grew up listening to stories of Ned and the Kelly Gang.  

From an early age Nolan was captivated by the story, reading all the available literature and travelling to the iconic sites to learn the “truth” behind the legend. 

The time in Australia’s history when Nolan was working on his first Kelly series also has some bearing on his choice of Kelly as subject. 

Nolan’s first Kelly series was realised immediately following World War II and, while Australia’s men and women had returned from the war largely triumphant, the post-war optimism that was to characterise the early 1950s had not yet arrived. A sense of helplessness and lack of direction or drive was widespread in Australia’s young male population, Nolan included. 

The figure of Ned – a young man of only 25 leading a group of faithful supporters to throw off the shackles of the British oppressors – was a noble and even patriotic subject. 

Working within the frameworks of Modernist abstraction – popular internationally at the time – Nolan created an iconography of Kelly and “Kelly country” which remains readily identifiable today. Nolan’s Ned is pared back to a simple black square with a slit, with Nolan ultimately removing Ned Kelly’s individuality and converting him into a device designed to represent the universality of the human condition. 

Yet, during the first display of these works in 1948, each was accompanied by quotations from three different sources: the official report into police conduct, newspaper reports and J.J. Kenneally’s 1929 book, The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers.  Each of these stories essentially elucidates the so-called facts of the Kelly story. However, Nolan presents his viewers with a paradox: while the works portray Ned as the “everyman”, they also firmly locate him, with the addition of more or less contemporaneous biographical and related material, within the social, political and historical context of 19th-century Australia.

The exhibition Imagining Ned, which is currently on display at Bendigo Art Gallery, includes a number of outstanding examples of Nolan’s works. 

Nolan’s interest in the Kelly story began in the 1940s and continued right through to his death in 1992. The exhibition includes works from each of his major Kelly series – 1946-47, 1955 and 1964, as well as one painting completed in 1991 just prior to the artist’s death.  

Entry fees apply for this exhibition and tickets are available online via the gallery’s website or on arrival from reception. If you live in Bendigo, don’t forget the special two for one offer during April – entry for two people is just $10.