In Nolan on Nolan, the artist’s complex and multifaceted persona is revealed as never before. Nolan appears as larrikin prankster, erudite academician, artist–courtier and embittered lover. Divided into four parts, the volume draws on the artist’s various modes of address, which Underhill has categorised as ‘Notebooks and Diaries’, ‘Letters’, ‘Public Statements’ and ‘Poems’. While the ‘Letters’ and ‘Public Statements’ show Nolan’s versatility and complexity, for those readers more interested in the artist’s creative process it is his notebooks that will prove most intriguing. As Underhill explains in her introduction to this chapter, Nolan used his notebooks to enact a kind of free fall, through which he could harness the multiple themes that fed his canvases. Personally, I found these ‘preparatory drawings’, as Underhill describes them, especially appealing; as archivist for the Nolan estate, I had ready access to the artist’s library, which made interpretation all the easier. For the uninitiated, however, the notebooks may be puzzling.

Underhill is a skilled researcher, and much of the book’s strength is drawn from her determination to source Nolan’s writing from the many locations in which it is housed. Regrettably, permission to include papers in the National Library of Australia was denied by his stepdaughter, Jinx Nolan, who maintains control of that archive but not the copyright. Given Underhill’s ability as a researcher, it is disappointing to find her claiming to be ‘the first to read and select for publication the holdings at his late home, The Rodd’. As the archivist, I was responsible for ordering much of the paperwork contained therein, well before Underhill commenced her project. Other researchers have had access to sections of these papers, not least of all T.G. Rosenthal and later Rodney James, who published from Nolan’s Antarctica diaries. Underhill’s assertion also distracts from the book’s core strength: collating material housed in disparate locations.

Australian readers will doubtless enjoy Underhill’s insights into the people with whom Nolan worked and mixed. Fellow Australians such as Sunday Reed, Albert Tucker and Barrett Reid appear alongside Kenneth Clark, Britten and Lowell. Whilst Nolan’s keen intellect is apparent in all the phases of his writing, the later texts reveal a mature thinker whose intellectual concerns are at once broad yet unified, albeit with an eye for surrealist juxtaposition. This is not territory for readers whose sole interest is on the visual arts, as Nolan maintained friendships with many whose focus was either on literature or music, especially opera. Nolan was not only at ease with such figures; he thrived in their company. Nolan is seldom gossipy, though there are enough titbits to satisfy the voyeuristic. Albert Tucker’s experience with LSD is included, as are ambiguous inferences concerning Nolan’s sexuality. Other surprises include Nolan’s reflections on Iraq and the impending decline of the West, which seem eerily prophetic. On 10 January 1991 he wrote:

The three Abrahamic religions, Judaism [sic], Christianity, Islam, are all set to go to war.

 What has providence or evolution in store for us? I have travelled around the world looking at the sites of lost civilisations. What next. Lorca’s New York?

  ‘New York, New York,

  the vines will grow over you.’

A work such as this demands absolute rigour, but inaccuracies occur. On page 41, Underhill suggests that Nolan’s mural work ‘Snake’ is composed of 270 panels; it in fact contains 1620. The editor’s footnotes are also useful insofar as they outline the careers of Nolan’s correspondents and collaborators; but occasional omissions appear. The significance of the actor and film director Stewart Cooper, who is mentioned on page 37, is not footnoted. This is surprising, since Cooper not only worked with Nolan on a major film project but was responsible for introducing him to Orson Welles, whom Cooper subsequently recorded reading Nolan’s ‘Paradise Garden’ poems. Similarly, C.P. Snow’s importance is not explained, despite his relationship to Nolan.

Nonetheless, by dividing the book into sections that are accompanied by brief introductory essays, Underhill has provided a helpful guide through a complex field. Her interpretation of the artist’s last and highly personalised poems is insightful, though this too could have been taken further. Whilst highlighting the personal and literary content of the project, Underhill fails to point out that the selected poems are drawn from a larger body of work spanning approximately 190 poems, all of which are constructed without recourse to a secondary editorial process. Here, Nolan draws on his ability to immerse himself in a particular series of texts (in this instance, the texts are primarily those of White and Shakespeare, though others are included), then produce a body of work through free association. Divided by the artist into three books, the manuscript contains an entry on the final page which reads ‘Title: Book of the Dread’. While playing on the title of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the poems do not venture into the afterlife in the manner of the Egyptian text, but travel through the land of the living into Nolan’s and White’s respective pasts. Just as the ‘Paradise Garden’ poems were a cathartic process enabling painting to occur, so too this last burst of writing cleared the way for Nolan’s late abstracts. Unintended for publication, the poems are, I suspect, the artist’s posthumous retort to ‘Ern Malley’ and a final vindication of his belief in the creative powers of the unconscious.

Sidney Nolan is one of the most highly regarded Australian artists of the twentieth century, and his career continues to be documented in manageable bites, through exhibitions, monographs and now his writings. Underhill’s book will remain an invaluable resource for Nolan scholars and helps to highlight his status as a truly international artist.