Tiiu Reissar Rev TD Noffs

Theodore ‘Ted’ Noffs (1926–95) was a Methodist Church minister, whose nonconformist ministry and social activism were extolled in Australia and internationally. After receiving a licentiate of theology, he was posted to rural New South Wales, then Chicago in America, where he witnessed abject urban poverty. There he formed his belief that religion should be ‘open to the world, reaching the unloved and unlovely who are in the immediate community’. Returning to Sydney, he assisted in opening the first Lifeline Centre. In 1964, Noffs established the Wayside Chapel, welcoming people of all faiths and backgrounds.

As a child, Tiiu Reissar escaped the Soviet invasion of Estonia with her family, fleeing to Berlin and spending World War II in a refugee camp. Displaced from their homeland, Reissar’s family emigrated to New Zealand, and she completed studies in art and teaching. In 1960, Reissar arrived in Sydney and began teaching, and exhibiting her work. At one opening, she met Noffs, in whom she witnessed ‘a kind of inner light that glowed from his personality’, and decided to paint him.

For this portrait, she took a 2-inch spatula and applied thick strokes of oil. This technique was introduced to her by a fellow émigré artist, Latvian-born Reinis Zusters, who himself had 21 works in the Archibald. Reissar captured Noffs in his office, unwittingly placing his figure against a cross-like form.