Sidney Nolan’s never-before-seen Auschwitz paintings

Revealing works made by iconic painter Sidney Nolan that document the Holocaust, and impacted the rest of his career.

As an artist, Sidney Nolan helped shaped the Australian consciousness through his images, from his stylised portraits of Ned Kelly to his bush landscapes. However, few know that Nolan was commissioned as an artist to cover the trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann in late 1961.

Eichmann was a pivotal architect in the design and implementation of the ‘Final Solution’, streamlining the transportation and industrialised extermination of Jews and other minorities via camps such as Auschwitz.

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Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina