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Lighthouse by Sir Sidney Nolan

Lighthouse by Sir Sidney Nolan
Accession Code: wu0805
Title: Lighthouse
Date completed: 1966
Medium: Prints
Location Name: Modern Records Centre

© the Artist’s Estate. All Rights Reserved 2019/ Bridgeman Images

Nolan experimented with printmaking early in his career in the 1940s before he had become a full-time artist, making simple but eloquent monotypes depicting buildings, people or plants. In 1952 After he moved to London in 1951, he had the opportunity to spend time in Paris where he worked at Atelier 17, the print studio run by S. W. Hayter who worked with many important artists including Kandinsky. Giacometti, Chagall and Miró. Here Nolan learned the techniques of etching and lithography. In the 1960s and 1970s he began to use screen printing which gave greater scope for the use of bold colour.

Using the screenprint technique, ink or paint is brushed through a screen and masks are used to produce the image. Nolan has maintained his spontaneous style working quickly to produce an abstract piece with vivid colours and strong shapes.