Brendan Kelly
b.1970- Ryde, NSW, lives & works in Mullumbimby, NSWAll in the Armour, 2021
signed lower right
Acrylic, graphite, oil pastel, photo collage & spray paint on plywood
122 x 122cm
Ned Kelly would be long forgotten along with countless other Australian bushrangers if not for his armour. The idea of armour most likely came to him while reading R D...
Ned Kelly would be long forgotten along with countless other Australian bushrangers if not for his armour. The idea of armour most likely came to him while reading R D Blackmore’s ‘Lorna Doone’ (a book he is said to have read).
There were 4 suits of armour, one for each member of the Kelly Gang, consisting of helmet, breastplate, backplate, arm guards and waist apron weighing 45kg each being made from 6-7 single-furrow plough mouldboards.
It was Sidney Nolan’s 1946 Ned Kelly paintings that really brought a focus onto the armour, particularly the helmet, depicted as a simple black square.
Along with the armour came visions of gallant knights on horseback with virtues such as chivalry, valour, wisdom and compassion, and so Ned Kelly, through his armour, won the hearts of so many Australians.
It’s all in the armour.
There were 4 suits of armour, one for each member of the Kelly Gang, consisting of helmet, breastplate, backplate, arm guards and waist apron weighing 45kg each being made from 6-7 single-furrow plough mouldboards.
It was Sidney Nolan’s 1946 Ned Kelly paintings that really brought a focus onto the armour, particularly the helmet, depicted as a simple black square.
Along with the armour came visions of gallant knights on horseback with virtues such as chivalry, valour, wisdom and compassion, and so Ned Kelly, through his armour, won the hearts of so many Australians.
It’s all in the armour.