Trevor Nickolls was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in He first exhibited as a student and gained a Diploma of Fine Art from the South Australian School of Art in One of his teachers was the printmaker Franz Kempf. In he undertook a diploma in education which enabled him to work as a school art teacher. In , when undertaking postgraduate studies at the Victorian College of the Arts he met the Papunya artist Dinny Nolan. He later described this as a turning point in his art, and in his life as Nolan mentored him in gaining an understanding of the directions his art could take. The following year, after graduating with a postgraduate diploma of painting, he was appointed an education officer. This meant that he was able to travel through the Northern Territory, meeting artists and coming to see how modern the ancient techniques could appear to be.
His own art changed to incorporate his new understanding of a changing tradition of Aboriginal art.
In the s he lived in both Sydney and Melbourne, and began to paint the awkward duality of the changing perception. It was the works of the s, that showed the awkwardness and pain of Aboriginal people responding to a rapidly changing wo
Brush with the Lore is a major work by pioneering Ngarrindjeri artist Trevor Nickolls, whose paintings offer sharp social commentaries on contemporary Aboriginal life.
This recent acquisition exemplifies his frequent focus on the complex relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and the enduring impacts of past tragedies on present- day people and events. His paintings, beginning in the late s, were among the first to portray the harsh realities of contemporary life from an Aboriginal perspective, prompting artist and curator Brenda L Croft to hail him as ‘the father of urban Aboriginal art’.
Adelaide-born Nickolls had always wanted to be an artist. He studied at the South Australian School of Art and gained a diploma in art teaching at Western Teachers College in Adelaide, before obtaining a Graduate Diploma in Painting from the Victorian College of the Arts. In a career spanning four decades, his humour and wit were always evident in his paintings, as was his recurring theme of ‘dreamtime to machinetime’ – the clash of modern-day life with ancestral traditions and a life more harmonious with nature.
In , Nickolls exhibited at the Venice Biennale alongside
Trevor Nickolls ()
Trevor Nickolls was a senior indigenous artist and seminal figure in Australian contemporary art. Born in , Nickolls exhibited nationally and internationally for over thirty years, and represented Australia with Rover Thomas at the Venice Biennale in
Nickolls’s artworks are powerful figurative and symbolic explorations of alienation and the urban landscape, and have informed many of the critical intellectual and aesthetic positions vital to questions of identity and Aboriginality in Australia. His works are widely recognised for their ‘dreamtime/machinetime’ theme, which has become an enduring motiv for the dichotomy of European and Aboriginal histories in our nation.
Trevor Nickolls ()
Family in Blue Holden,
synthetic polymer paint on linen
x cm (47 13/16 x 60 1/16in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Alice Springs
EXHIBITED
Other side art: Trevor Nickolls, a survey of paintings and drawings &#; , Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 13 May - 2 August ; Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment, Alice Springs, Northern 13 November - 30 January ; Benalla Art Gallery, Benalla, 11 February - 1 April ; ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, 15 April &#; 23 May ; Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, 24 July &#; 19 September ; Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art University of South Australia, Adelaide, 22 October &#;17 December ; Woollongong City Art Gallery, Woollongong, 6 February - 10 April
In Family in Blue Holden, Trevor Nickolls sets up the scene utilising a multitude of formal elements developed early in his career. The comic book influences of his youth and the stage-like, exaggerated scenarios inspired by his time as an attendant at Her Majesty's Theatre in Adelaide as a teenager and university student result in a flattened picture plane which is sti
Biographies you may also like
Lin-manuel miranda autobiography sample An intimate and captivating exploration of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s artistic journey, revealing how the creator of the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights found his unique voice through Missing: sample.
Luisa maria guell biography sample Luisa María Güell es una reconocida cantante y actriz cubana que ha dejado una huella en la industria de la música latina. A lo largo de su carrera, ha demostrado su talento y versatilidad, Missing: sample.
Pompeo batoni biography samples Pompeo Batoni was an Italian painter and draughtsman. He was the most celebrated painter in Rome of his day, and one of the most famous in Europe. For nearly half a century, he painted Missing: samples.
Caspar david friedrich brief biography of mayan Caspar David Friedrich, a German artist, was one of the most prominent representatives of the Romantic movement in German painting, alongside Philipp Otto Runge. He was born on Missing: mayan.
Lefteris pantazis biography of william hill Find out when Lefteris Pantazis is next playing live near you. List of all Lefteris Pantazis tour dates, concerts, support acts, reviews and venue g: biography · william hill.
Daniel sherrin biography He was born in Brentford, Essex and moved to Ramsgate when he was a boy. Later he lived in Seasalter near Whitstable where he died. Initially he mostly painted seascapes in the style of .