6 1961

Curator: This lithograph, simply titled "6," is by the Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan. It's part of the Tate collection, rendered in stark black ink on paper. It strikes me as unsettling. Editor: The sharp contrast and fragmented imagery definitely contribute to that mood. I see a reclining figure, almost floating in water, with what appears to be a dark shape above, maybe a swimmer? The composition, with its high contrast, seems to symbolize the vulnerability and the ever-present threat. Curator: I see the reclining figure as drawing upon a familiar artistic trope of a "Sleeping Venus" but the way Nolan has rendered this seems to imply there is more violence than beauty here. Perhaps he is exploring the cultural fetishization of the female body in contrast with the violence enacted upon it. Editor: It's interesting you mention Venus, because the water, or whatever liquid surrounds the figure, does evoke notions of birth and origin, primordial chaos even. In that sense, Nolan is tapping into very ancient, archetypal imagery. But what is that looming, dark shape above? It looks almost predatory. Curator: Perhaps it represents societal constraints, or the male gaze itself, forever looming and threatening the subject's autonomy. Editor: Whatever it represents, the visual weight certainly creates tension. Nolan has created a potent scene, open to many interpretations, but consistently disquieting.