- Artist
- Sir Sidney Nolan 1917–1992
- Medium
- Oil paint on hardboard
- Dimensions
- Support: 1219 × 914 mm
frame: 1261 × 956 × 55 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Lord McAlpine of West Green 1983
- Reference
- T03556
Catalogue entry
T03556 Armoured Head 1956
Oil on hardboard 48 × 36 (1219 × 914)
Inscribed ‘N.’ b.r. and ‘HELMET./1956/Nolan’, ‘NOV. 16th 1956’ and ‘NOLAN/NOVEMBER 16th/1956’ on reverse
Presented by Lord McAlpine 1983
Prov: Lord McAlpine (purchased from the artist)
Exh: Sidney Nolan, Whitechapel Art Gallery, June–July 1957 (68, as ‘Mask’); II. Documenta, Kassel, July–October 1959 (Nolan 2, as ‘Helmet’)
Repr: Encounter, VIII, January 1957, facing p.16
The artist says that this picture, dated 16 November 1956, is one of three or four paintings inspired by the Hungarian uprising which took place that month. Soviet tanks entered Budapest early in the morning of 4 November and savage fighting broke out; but large-scale hostilities were over within a fortnight.
This work was reproduced in Encounter a couple of months later with a quotation from a news item: ‘All the people in the street could see of the driver of the tank was his face reflected in the driving mirror’ (apparently the Hungarians tried to immobilize the tanks by smashing the mirrors). This description also inevitably reminded Nolan of Ned Kelly in his helmet, and the image turned into a kind of fusion between the two. Although it is inscribed with the title ‘Helmet’, Nolan would now prefer it to be called ‘Armoured Head’.
Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1986
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