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Lot Essay
From childhood, Nolan had been fascinated by the Antarctic exploring expeditions of Ernest Shackleton, Robert Scott and Douglas Mawson in the early twentieth century. In January 1964, Nolan finally got an opportunity to visit as he and the writer Alan Moorehead flew to the American base at McMurdo Sound to start an eight day tour of Antarctica. Moorehead was to gather material for an essay for the New Yorker and Nolan was commissioned to provide the illustrations. Nolan took 200 postcards to record his impressions of the landscape over the trip, which he used to paint works such as Explorers (Antarctica) in the 18 months following.
In Antarctica, Nolan was surprised by the abundance of unique patterns, rich variety of colours and the presence of dry, windy valleys that reminded him of the Australian desert. As Moorehead observed, 'in the Antarctic and in much of Central Australia one finds the similarity of great extremes. Anyone wishing to paint or describe these scenes turns naturally to the explorers. They were the first on the scene, they had the fresh eye, knowing nothing of what lay before them - The problem of the artist who now follows in the explorers' tracks is to get back to their state of innocence. They go there in defiance of nature, and what they see there bears no clear relation even to their inherited or instinctive knowledge. They meet the bizarre in colour and form and light, and if they are not afraid or overwhelmed they will accept what they see and not try to translate it into anything else. This is why Sidney Nolan's paintings are so satisfying to anyone who has some acquaintance with the desert and the ice - or more specifically, with man's place in the environment where he is rejected. The polar explorer is an embattled figure with staring goggled eyes and a swirl of protective covering round his head and body.' (Sidney Nolan, Recent Work, exhibition catalogue, London, Marlborough Fine Art, 1965, pp. 4-6.)
In Antarctica, Nolan was surprised by the abundance of unique patterns, rich variety of colours and the presence of dry, windy valleys that reminded him of the Australian desert. As Moorehead observed, 'in the Antarctic and in much of Central Australia one finds the similarity of great extremes. Anyone wishing to paint or describe these scenes turns naturally to the explorers. They were the first on the scene, they had the fresh eye, knowing nothing of what lay before them - The problem of the artist who now follows in the explorers' tracks is to get back to their state of innocence. They go there in defiance of nature, and what they see there bears no clear relation even to their inherited or instinctive knowledge. They meet the bizarre in colour and form and light, and if they are not afraid or overwhelmed they will accept what they see and not try to translate it into anything else. This is why Sidney Nolan's paintings are so satisfying to anyone who has some acquaintance with the desert and the ice - or more specifically, with man's place in the environment where he is rejected. The polar explorer is an embattled figure with staring goggled eyes and a swirl of protective covering round his head and body.' (Sidney Nolan, Recent Work, exhibition catalogue, London, Marlborough Fine Art, 1965, pp. 4-6.)