AAT: Sidney Nolan's Antarctica

Overview

In January 1964, Sidney Nolan travelled with writer and fellow Australian Alan Moorehead to Antarctica, with a routine US Navy resupply operation. The pair visited the continent for eight days, during which time Nolan made around 200 watercolour sketches, which have since been lost, and photographed the deeply unfamiliar and awe-inspiring environment.

Returning to London, via New Zealand, the South Pacific and Australia, Nolan immediately set to work; the watercolour sketches and photographs, along with his memory, were the foundation for the paintings he made. Working at speed, he produced the Antarctica series of 68 paintings in oil on composition board between April and September that year, while also working on other paintings. The series comprises works depicting the landscape, explorers, scientists and more. The paintings represent not a passive white landscape, but one full of muscular forms, dynamic elements and intense and often-brooding colours. Shown in the UK, US and Australia between 1964 and 1967, the Antarctica series secured Nolan a significant measure of international critical acclaim.

Technical specifications