Last weekend I went to Chichester for the first time. It is ridiculous how many cathedral cities I have not been to or not looked at properly. An excellent excuse for heading down to West Sussex is the Pallant House Gallery.
The house is Queen Anne, built in 1712, with a modern extension opened in 2006. For once the extension sits happily beside its other half. Not least among its merits is an excellent restaurant with the possibility of eating in a courtyard garden. The gallery is a real jewel box; a series of small rooms showing some of the permanent collection and about four temporary exhibitions including Victor Pasmore (mentioned yesterday in Matisse Mania), Lucien Freud and Sidney Nolan.
Nolan is no slouch. He was born in Victoria, Australia, in 1917. He went AWOL from the Australian army. This and his Irish descent led him to identify with Ned Kelly who features in many of his pictures. Kelly also came from Victoria and has another connection with Nolan. The latter’s great-grandfather served in the Victoria Police and took part in the shoot-out at Glenrowan in 1880 in which most of Kelly’s gang were killed and Kelly captured and hanged.
Nolan came to live in the UK in 1951 became a member of the Royal Academy and was an unlikely recipient of the Order of Merit in 1983. Unlike Ned, Sidney became part of the Establishment. The Pallant House Nolan exhibition reminded me of Tony Richardson’s 1970 film, starring Mick Jagger: Ned Kelly. It only cost £2.49 to download it on iTunes and it is worth seeing as an Aussie Butch Cassidy. The photography is good (shot in New South Wales) and the soundtrack likewise with Jagger contributing The Wild Colonial Boy.