Authenticity and the national vision: a reconsideration of the role of the reeds in the art of the Angry Penguins

In 1981, Australia was urged by Richard Haese in Rebels and Precursors to take note of the authentic national vision in the art of the Angry Penguins–Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker–and to see their accomplishments as in large part due to their patrons: John and Sunday Reed. The Reeds continue to be widely credited with having provided the necessary financial support, the intellectual and critical discernment, and the nurturing and guidance to bring the group, as united revolutionaries, into being. The quality, character and iconography of their art has been examined elsewhere, but this is not so for the contribution of the Reeds whose reputed influence has largely gone unchallenged. The following is an interrogation of the mythology that has developed around the founders of Heide. How did these mythological accretions accumulate to the degree that the Heide story has become folkloric?.